I would think they found other sources of revenue during this period, but I have not researched this topic. I've read messages from other people who have researched it, but I didn't consider it particularly important information at the time. My focus has always been on the right to independence, and the reasons why the Northern states invaded the Southern states.
Once the war was started, these sorts of economic details no longer mattered to me.
“Once the war was started, these sorts of economic details no longer mattered to me.”
They matter to me, because they refute your inaccurate description of Southern economic production before the war.
To recap:
The reason for secession was the South’s desire to preserve slavery.
The trigger for secession was the election of Abraham Lincoln, which fed fear of the abolitionist foundation of the Republican Party.
The American Civil War began when units of the South Carolina Militia fired upon a Union fort in Charleston harbor.