Economic Factors of the Civil War

Cities grew and flourished and soon it was apparent that money was needed to support the exploding population. The North supported tariffs, unlike the South. Tariffs are taxes that are placed on imported goods by the government. The North supported any tariffs on imported goods for a few reasons insomuch they did not feel threatened. Industry was running rampant, so finished goods did not have to be brought over from England. There was no more need to import from England. If imports were brought in, they were more of a luxury than a necessity. All necessities were made on Northern soil by their own factories. Another reason that the North favored taxes was because they hoped that with higher import taxes, the South would then purchase goods from Northern factories instead of England. For instance, if the price of a finely woven, imported shirt plus the tariff caused the price to jump too high, Southerners would be forced to buy the shirt from a Northern factory. Railroads were being established mainly between all the major cities of the North. The network of these railroads meant that goods were able to travel faster. This considerably shortened the time from raw goods to finished products. The North’s transition to industry proved to be soundly lucrative. It evolved, expanded and laid a firm foundation for the future.

The south, which was mostly a society built on agriculture, was at a huge disadvantage when it came to railroads. Two-thirds of all the railroads in the nation at the time were in the north. The southern states couldn’t transport anything as easy as the north, and their income mostly relied on the exportation of their crops. Without this source of income, the Confederacy’s economy was crippled. Arguably, railroads were the reason for the South’s eventual defeat.

The Civil War that took place in the United States from 1861 to 1865 could have easily swung either way at several points during the conflict. There is however several reasons that the North would emerge victorious from this bloody war that pit brother against brother. Some of the main contributing factors are superior industrial capabilities, more efficient logistical support, greater naval power, and a largely lopsided population in favor of the Union. Also one of the advantages the Union had was that of an experienced government, an advantage that very well might have been one of the greatest contributing factors to their success. There are many reasons factors that lead to the North's victory, and each of these elements in and

At first the South relied on imported arms and munitions but soon was able to produce its own. It had more trouble with clothing and food throughout the duration of the war.

Since the Civil War brought extensive economic change to the United States, civilians in the North and South faced many economic challenges. "In the North the arms, metalworkings, boot making, and shipbuilding industries boomed, but the scarcity of cotton caused widespread layoffs and closures in the textile industry" (Keene, 391). Even though workers' salaries rose by forty percent, prices increased even faster, resulting in inflation that averaged fifteen percent. Despite the North's economic hardships, the problems the South faced were far worse. "The Southern economy was hit hard by the cessation of trade with the North and Europe due to the Union blockade" (Keene, 391). Southern industry and agriculture were limited by persistent

For example, farming was the main source of income for the Confederate states. The main southern chief crop which came to be known as King Cotton, accounted for 57% of all U.S. exports (“Civil War”). However, in order to produce these large amounts of cotton, the southern Confederate states depended heavily on slave labor. Since cotton production began to dominate and fuel the southern economy, the South felt that they did not need to industrialize like their northern neighbors did. This caused the South to manufacture very little goods and caused them to purchase manufactured goods from the industrialized North or to purchase imported goods from overseas.

All in all, the South was unsuccessful in progressing in a favorable system for intermediate transportation. The South mainly depended on their cotton and tobacco. They were helpless with diverting over to a food management. The fighting from the war destroyed the crops and homes in the South. The North was a diverse society and its foundation focused on an enlarged economy and agriculture. The North had access to machinery and used them significantly. This allowed framers to develop more land and supplied a growth in production. In importance, the factories had a positive impact on the war and were capable of producing guns, ammunition, and clothing more rapidly. The Union tried such methods as borrowing funds, taxing, and printing money to fund their war which in the end worked for them. The Confederacy used the same methods; however, taxing the civilians was rejected by the public and the Congress. To manage the army, the Union passed the Enrollment Act

The civil war was a battle between the union and the confederacy to preserve the union. The war took 4 years for the north to win, and near the end of the war, the north was also fighting to end slavery. The north won the war because they had more resources, better strategies, and better transportation.

Furthermore, the South had little preexisting industry and lacked an infrastructure for dispersing goods (Perman, 14). From an early point in the war the Union army cut off railways and blockaded Southern ports, and roads in the South were primitive. Farmers were forced to contend with government controls on production and marauding thieves who would take whatever they could from them. With no means of transporting goods and no slave labor, Southerners could barely produce enough to feed their families and even if they were

Prior to the start of the Civil war in 1861, the South was still a heavily agricultural based society and remained so for years after the war ended. On the other hand, the North’s economy relied more on manufactured products rather than agricultural products. With the North’s openess to advancements in technology, came advancements in travel and shipping. The biggest advancement in travel at the time was the invention of the railroad system. The North’s percentage of railroad tracks, when compared to the total of railroad tracks located within the North and the South, was about 72 percent (Doc. C). Meaning the South had to rely on the North to transport most of the time so their crops could be transported

The Civil War was the bloodiest war in American history. America was split into two sides that had strengths and weaknesses against each other. It seemed they were the complete opposite. The North had more factories and railroads, while the South had more farms. Politics had a strong part to play too. The North had a better government, while the South struggled to form one. Finally, the North had a larger army throughout the war.

Though, in the South they wished Europe would help them because of the cotton industry. The South had very meniscal amount of factories and little to no railroads compared to the South. Abraham Lincoln asked the loyal states to help the arm. The South attempted to have single authority, but in the end this seemed to have failed and not workout. The South had also made the inflation due to the amount of printed paper. At one point shoes were $200 Dollars a pair and a barrel of flour was $300 Dollars which was ten time the cost of a normal one before inflation (Davidson and Stoff 487-488, Guelzo, “Confederate States”).

Although the North won the war, the outcome could have been different if the South was more successful. One way the South could have been more successful is they could have produced more railroads and telegraph lines. To elaborate, if the South produced more telegraph lines, they would have been able to send forts information quicker. Not to mention, if the Confederate States of America fabricated more railroads during the Civil War, traveling for soldiers would have been quicker and more efficient. In like manner, another way the South could have been more successful was if they made better battle strategies. To give more information, due to the farming economy of the South, they were able to produce a lot of cotton, which was important to

An army of soldiers requires an enormous amount of supplies, so one would therefore need to have the means to thereby create those supplies. The North was well industrialized by the time of the Civil War, whereas the South was still highly dependent on slave labor, which hindered their ability to industrialize.4 When it came to producing weapons, uniforms, shoes, preserved food, tools for more effective farming to feed soldiers, the telegraph, and other necessities, the Union was way in the lead. They could not only create these products, but they could produce them in mass amounts in a fraction of the time it originally took to make them.5 The South had a hard time enduring the war because they did not have the factories necessary to produce the quality and mass amount of supplies they needed.

While both the North and the South had stable and confident economic systems, the North was much more industrialized and diversified and with a better transportation system they not only had the ability for mass production but also the means for speedy and