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Several posts back, Heyworth sourced some of his commentary on his reading of an internet site, www.civilwarhome, about trade before the war.

The more I read of the period, the more I realize that I have really been wrong about some WBTS "historians". I considered most to essentially censor favorable facts about the South by simple elimination, and I did not readily attribute outright dishonest motivations and purposeful posting of outright lies.

But when I looked at the "information" supplied on this location, I was appalled.

Specifically, Heyworth went to a piece in the book "The Civil War Day By Day" by E.B. Long.

If you don't know him, the late E. B. Long was a professor of American studies at the University of Wyoming and the author or editor of a half-dozen books on the Civil War, including "The Civil War Day by Day" in 1985.

This is the first part of his work that was copied to the internet site:

In the areas of commerce, imports and exports, as well as transportation, the eleven Confederate states were far behind their Northern border-state brethren. From July 1, 1860, to June 31, 1861, United States Exports totaled $249,344,913 according to incomplete returns. Of the figures for exports eight Confederate states had only $27,145,466 of the total with no figures given for Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and incomplete totals from other states. This gives the Northern states a figure of $222,199,477, with New York alone having $158,606,518.

Well, of course, he is conjuring some data to show how far behind the Southern states were in exports relative to the North. So he wants to put out a little data to support this notion.

The first figure he gives is export data from 7/1860 to 6/1861. Does he bother to admit the obvious that no Southern goods were departing from US Customs houses as of the middle of that period, thus rendering any comparative analysis invalid? No.

Next thing he says is that the data is from "incomplete returns".

The Hell it was not "incomplete" data at all. He pulled it right out of the US Treasury Report.

Then he wants to compare that data to tallies he says come from the states. He throws out a total for the Confederacy but adds that no figures were available from some states and uses the incomplete data phrase again.

This guy is not only using the wrong data, he knows he is.

His Export number of $249 million is in the first column of a table in section U, page 207, of the Historical Statistics of the United States.

Right above it, it makes it ABUNDANTLY clear to the reader that this number is total exports of merchandise that includes the value of the specie that was being sent to Europe. It also says plainly that this number also includes goods from Central and South America that are being re-exported to Europe via American ports.

And right beside the number he chose is the number without the specie and re-exports...RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS EYES Any experienced historian would know that...any clod would know the same.

He is comparing apples with oranges. The real number for merchandise exports that year, less specie and re-exports was $205 million, a number 20% lower than the number he quoted, but obviously good for making a favorable point.

It is again unreliable for comparison because it only includes about half a year's data on Southern production.

So the "historian" is being very deceitful.

He wanted to use the data to show that the productions of the South were "far behind their Northern bordeer-state brethren."

Well, let's look at a full year's data on exports using the merchandise figures only and see how far behind the South was. This data is from the exact same document he was using:

U. S. Department of Commerce, International Transactions and Foreign Commerce.

Agricultural Production of the South for calendar year 1859.

Cotton: .....................$161,434,000
Tobacco: .....................$21,074,000
Rice:.......................... 2,207,000
Naval stores ...................3,694,000
Sugar ............................196,000
Molasses ..........................75,699
Hemp ...............................9,227
Other ..........................8,108,000
................................___________
.......................Total $196,797,926

Value of Southern manufactured Cotton exports
............................$4,989,000

Value of cotton component of Northern Manufactured cotton exports(assuming a 60%value) .........................$3,669,000
..................................___________
..................................$205,455,926
This is the total of Southern produced products for export as well as the value of Southern produced raw materials used in Northern exports.

Percentage of Southern Production to the total US exports for 1859 of
$278,392,000 was 74%.

Thus it is seen that from the US Treasury tables that the Southern states contribution to the value of exports for that year is 74%.

That is a vastly greater number than our "historian" comes up with.

It really demonstrates how totally biased some of these people are.