Exploring The Perspectives Of Outside Governments

The Civil War tremendously affected Charleston’s economy. After the Civil War, cotton production, a major cash crop in Charleston, decreased dramatically: 4 million bales in 1861, down to 300,000 in 1865. With the destruction of the economic system in the South, farm values diminished 41% after the war, leaving most of the farmers in poverty (Unit4/CivilWargoals). The Confederate currency became worthless in the post-Civil War economy. Charlestonians grew unable to pay to rebuild the city or pay their taxes. The Confederate government paid the small amount of factories in the Southern States that had converted to making weapons, clothes, and bullets for the war cause. Once the war ended, the money became worthless so the factories shut down. The fighting resulted in the destruction of some Southern factories. Both the Confederacy and the Union destroyed ways of transportion, such as railroads and bridges, in order to prevent the enemy from using them to transport soldiers and supplies from battle to battle ("South Carolina and the Civil War”).

The North and South were very different from each other. Industrialization was happening in the North, while large-scale cotton planting was happening in the South. The South sold their crops to England in exchange for inexpensive factory-made goods produced in Europe. As a result of industrialization, Northern Factories began producing many of the goods that were already being produced in Europe. Thus, the North started to tax the South on any goods imported from Europe, so that the South would buy goods from the North. These unfair taxes angered the South, and contributed largely to its anti-North attitude (Civil War

ship the cotton but this meant that the South had to pay the North to

There were many economic differences between the North and the South that eventually led to the Civil War. One main difference was that The South's economy was based on agriculture and slave labor while the North's economy was more focused on manufacturing. According to Document 1a, “Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project” , it represents that the value of Northern manufacturing surpassed the value of Southern manufacturing. This shows that the Northern states had a very well off economy , which can partly be due to its geography and location along the coast which contributed to major trade. Another reason for the North’s good economy was because unlike the South the industrialized North generated their wealth through innovation

This was to prevent them from exporting cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops and to keep them from importing much needed war supplies. Since cotton was the South’s staple product and what they relied on for economic success, if the trade of this were to be shut down then they would run out of funds and lose all financial power. The Confederate government was able to purchase a pound of cotton for as low as 8¢, and sell it to Europe for as much as 54¢. This sale was often above 300% profit while considering the costs of transport.[4] Therefore, if they were to lose this major source of income, they would begin to crumble and lose any financial power they could possibly have over the Union.

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

Financing the war was also a problem. Americans had been unaccustomed to paying taxes to the national government, but both sides had to end the tradition of hard money and minimal government by raising taxes, issuing war bonds, and printing paper money. Inflation was serious in the North and devastating in the South by 1865.

Economic conflict became a major cause of the Civil War because the South objected to unfair tariff levels. With tariffs in place that caused taxes on goods brought into the country, the South started to feel as though this was very unfair to them since they didn’t have as many industries as the North and were more dependent goods imported from Europe. As the taxes went up, so did the price of the items and resulting in every day, normal priced items becoming overpriced for people who couldn't afford the higher prices. This anger among the people of the south caused by this inflation was the source of economic conflict. John Calhoun of South Carolina claimed that he was going to end this practice,

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.

The antebellum era (also referred to as the plantation era) between 1800’s to 1860 was a period of slave driven farming, marking the economic growth of the south. During this period in 1815, cotton was the most valuable traded produce in the United States and by 1840, it was more valuable compared to all other imported and exported goods combined. In 1860, one year before the Civil War, the South was predominantly reliant on the sale of agricultural products, such as tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton estimated at 5,344,000 bales, to a worldwide market. while the southern states generated two-thirds of the world's cotton supply, the South had little industrial capability (manufactured good estimated to the value of$156,000,000), consisting of an estimated 29 percent of the railroad tracks or 14484.1km, and only 13 percent of the nation's banks. The South attempted slave labour in manufacturing, but were mainly content with their agricultural economy. Their delay in industrial expansion was not the result of any integral economic disadvantages, there was a vast amount of wealth in the South, but it was mainly bound to slave labour. In 1860, the financial value of slaves in the United States surpassed the participated value of all of the land's railroads, factories, and banks combined. the day before the Civil War, the value of cotton was at its peak, the Confederate aristocrats were confident that the significance of cotton on the world market, especially in England and France,

The Union blockade did not take full effect for many months, allowing the Southerners time to export their cotton harvest, and reap the financial benefits. Alexander Stephens had a plan at the start of the war that he estimated would net around $800M for the Confederacy, providing a sound financial base for the war effort. Although somewhat optimistic, and affected by practical difficulties, it is fair to say that the cotton crop would have been far better exported than stockpiled or burnt. Secondly, the Confederate government displayed an unwillingness to tax her citizens, preferring instead to print money, and suffer the rampant inflation that resulted. The Union financed its war effort mainly from taxation and bonds, while 60% of Southern funds came from unbacked paper money. The problems associated with this are clear to see: prices rose 100-fold over the four years of war, wiping out southerners' savings, and devastating the economy. The government's reaction to this, the third mistake, was to impress public goods for military use. However, rather than curbing inflation, this merely acted as a disincentive to supply, making essential items increasingly scarce. This, coupled with the poor infrastructure and parochialism of some State governors, meant that the army went hungry in a nation with the capacity to produce plenty of food. Finally, it is argued that the Confederate government should have done more to improve infrastructure and

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”).

With the decrease in land prices, the value of cotton also dropped by an alarming rate. Before the war even began, the cost of one pound of cotton was $1.25, but at the end of the war, the price for each pound was only $0.20, about one-sixth of what it used to be. Since cotton is king in the south, and without it there is nothing, the decrease in prices of cotton caused much of the economy to collapse. Their reliance on cotton as the major cash crop, and little focus on anything else, made it really hard to create a profit with the small amount of goods that had not been affected in price.

I know I am jumping ahead, but it is important to review this because it sets the stage for the attitude and how life was in the South. The South believed cotton was so important that it would cause Britain and France to support the South during the Civil War because it was such a valuable crop (at least for the moment). Cotton ruled the day in the antebellum South and created a divide not only with the North, but also within the South. This dependence on cotton made a few wealthy, and the rest just getting by.

In 1861, the American Civil War commenced after many years of tension building between the Northern and Southern states. The main reason of the tension was said to be the debate of slavery between the North and South, and although some documents support this claim, it is false. The war had been brewing since 1607, before slavery was even introduced to the colonies that would become the United States of America. The debate of slavery did play a major part in the civil war; however it did so in supporting the true cause of the civil war. The main cause of the American Civil War was not the debate of slavery, but rather Europe’s role in the American economy.