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To: PeaRidge
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

447 posted on 11/13/2003 2:34:16 PM PST by WhiskeyPapa (Virtue is the uncontested prize.)
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To: WhiskeyPapa
"most planters were in debt-mainly to factors who in turn were financed by northern merchants or banks."

Let's examine that. Each year around September, the cotton crops appear at market. By June of the next year, the loans were paid off. Then the cycle began again. So, sometimes they were in debt, sometimes not.

During the business cycles of 1857-1860, the value of cotton sales profits on balance in Northern banks was more than the South borrowed to buy raw materials and manufactured goods. So, the Southern banks were paid in gold or silver coins, specie.

I already gave you the source, the United States Department of the Treasury. The figures are thus for 1860:
Value of Specie in all Union banks: $40,618,000
Value of Specie in all Southern banks: $48,359,000

So, your statement from McPherson, "They didn't have much liquid capital." requires one to say, compared to whom, Dr McPherson?
459 posted on 11/14/2003 7:40:55 AM PST by PeaRidge
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