The central government couldn't collect taxes.
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the USA.
State and Central Government
The Articles make multiple distinctions between state and central government. The state governments are the individual and separate governments defined by each of the states. The state government was not controlled through the Articles, each state made its own constitution to set up its own government.
The central government is also referred to as the federal government. This is the government that connects all of the states and is set up by the Articles. The central government is the government of the entire nation. No one state has complete power over the central government.
What is a Confederacy?
Most people think of the civil war when they hear confederacy; however, the word was used long before the South seceded. A confederacy is a type of government where multiple states of equal power come together to form a unified organization. In a confederacy, the states usually have more power than the central government. In the modern day, the European Union is similar to a confederacy.
Right to Tax
Through the Articles, the central government was extremely weak. Almost all powers except printing money and regulating international affairs were given to the states. This meant that the central government could not collect or enforce taxes. However, all of the states had the right to tax their own citizens.