Replies

Walt from #414:

"Southerners were in debt to northern creditors to something like the tune of $200,000,000. And their wealth was in land and slaves. They didn't have much liquid capital."

You from #416: "Source please."

I would like to see him offer more in the way of information. But he won't.

In 1860, there was more gold and silver specie on deposit in Southern Banks than in the North. And that trend began in 1857. (Source--US Secretary of Treasury report for fiscal years 1857-60.

So, actually they were more liquid than the Northern banks--Walt refuted again. Ho hum.

At any given point there was debt recorded in all US banks due to the costs of buying seed crop, transportation, and the purchase of bank "bills" to allow trade. Normal financing of business, as you know.

In 1859, $240,000,000 worth of Northern manufactured goods were sold and sent South. Another $106,000,000 of Northern bought imports were sent South.

This was the nature of trade since it began. It would seem that on the eve of War, the Northern importers and manufacturers would have been against the disruption of this condition. And many were.

But by the time that the Confederacy announced its much lower tariff rates, they were more afraid of the free-trade potential of the South. Then, Lincoln organized the Naval expedition to Ft. Sumter.

Even though New York was threatening to secede, Massachusetts was pushing for war. And Lincoln arranged it.

Walt from #414: I wrote:
"Southerners were in debt to northern creditors to something like the tune of $200,000,000. And their wealth was in land and slaves. They didn't have much liquid capital."
You from #416: "Source please."
I would like to see him offer more in the way of information. But he won't.

All in good time, my pretty.

"The Confederate economy had started with two strikes against it. Most of the South's capital was tied up in the nonliquid form of land and slaves. While the Confederate states possessed 30 percent of the national wealth (in the form of real and personal property), they had only 12 percent of,the circulating currency and 21 percent of the banking assets. The cotton embargo prevented the South from cashing in on its principal asset in 1861-62. Instead of possessing money to invest in Confederate bonds, most planters were in debt-mainly to factors who in turn were financed by northern merchants or banks.

The South initially hoped to turn that planter debt into a means of making Yankee bankers pay for the war. On May 21, 1861, Congress enacted a law requiring that Confederate citizens to pay into the Treasury the amount of debts owed to U.S. citizens, in turn for which they would receive Confederate bonds.

Later legislation confiscated property owned by "alien enemies." Like so many other southern financial measures, however, these laws yielded disappointing results-no more than $12 million, a far cry from the estimated $200 million owed to northern creditors."

-- BCF, p. 437

Ho hum.

The idea of the so-called CSA paying for federal property within its borders is absurd.

The men that made the rebellion were not heroes, they were bums.

Walt