Posted on 01/13/2004 9:01:35 AM PST by Aurelius
Dust jackets for most books about the American Civil War depict generals, politicians, battle scenes, cavalry charges, cannons[sic] firing, photographs or fields of dead soldiers, or perhaps a battle between ironclads. In contrast our book {[url=http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2XGHOEK4JT&isbn=0842029613&itm=7]Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War Mark Thornton, Steven E. Woodworth (Editor), Robert B. Ekelund[/url]features a painting by Edgar Degas entitled the "Cotton Exchange" which depicts several calm businessmen and clerks, some of them Degas’s relatives, going about the business of buying and selling cotton at the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. The focus of this book is thus on the economic rationality of seemingly senseless events of the Civil War – a critical period in American history.
What caused the war? Why did the Union defeat the Confederacy? What were the consequences of the War? The premise of the book is that historians have a comparative advantage in describing such events, but economists have the tools to help explain these events.
We use traditional economic analysis, some of it of the Austrian and Public Choice variety, to address these principal questions and our conclusions generally run counter to the interpretations of historians. In contrast to historians who emphasize the land war and military strategy, we show that the most important battle took place at sea. One side, the blockade runners, did not wear uniforms or fire weapons at their opponents. The other side, the blockading fleet, was composed of sailors who had weapons and guns but they rarely fired their cannons in hopes of damaging their opponents. Their pay was based on the valued of captured ships. Historians often have argued that the Confederacy lost because it was overly reluctant to use government power and economic controls, but we show the exact opposite. Big Confederate government brought the Confederacy to its knees.
Some now teach that slavery was the sole cause of the Civil War – an explanation that historians have developed in the twentieth century. However, this analysis does not explain why the war started in 1861 (rather than 1851 or 1841) and it fails to explain why slavery was abolished elsewhere without such horrendous carnage.
We emphasize economics and politics as major factors leading to war. The Republicans who came to power in 1860 supported a mercantilist economic agenda of protectionism, inflation, public works, and big government. High tariffs would have been a boon to manufacturing and mining in the north, but would have been paid largely by those in the export-oriented agriculture economy.
Southern economic interests understood the effects of these policies and decided to leave the union. The war was clearly related to slavery, but mainly in the sense that Republican tariffs would have squeezed the profitability out of the slave-based cotton plantation economy to the benefit of Northern industry (especially Yankee textiles and iron manufacturing). Southerners would also have lost out in terms of public works projects, government land giveaways, and inflation.
The real truth about wars is that they are not started over principle, but over power. Wars however, are not won by power on the battlefield, but by the workings and incentives of men who go to work in fields and factories, to those who transport, store and sell consumer goods, and most especially to the entrepreneurs and middlemen who make markets work and adapt to change. This emphasis and this economic account of tariffs, blockade and inflation, like the focus of Degas’s "Cotton Exchange" reveals the most important and least understood aspect of war.
there was a small percentage (certainly less than 10%!)on BOTH sides who believed the WBTS was about slavery and/or even CARED about the continuation of chattel slavery as an institution.
for the REST of the men who wore the blue & gray, the WBTS was either about "perserving the union" or "about FREEDOM for dixie's land".
free dixie,sw
for the NORTHERN soldier the WBTS was about "preserving the Union".
for the VAST majority of SOUTHERN soldiers the WBTS was about just ONE thing = FREEDOM for the southland, from the hatefilled,arrogant,self-righteous damnedyankees.
that is still the reason for the southron nationalist movement= southrons, of all sorts, are sick unto death of the intrusive,hypocritical,socialist-leaning,arrogant damnyankees "sticking their long noses into our affairs".
southrons just want to be left alone!
free dixie,sw
An awfully sweeping statement. I know you could find a number of contemporary statements, many from people in very high positions, to support your contention.
However, the more I read of state or regional histories, whether it's about people here in North Carolina, or the very interesting situation in Oklahoma, the more variety I find among the opinions of both political leaders and ordinary people. There's some support for every sweeping generalization, and usually equal support for its opposite. That ought to be a warning to us.
If I were a college student today, I'd be tempted to write my term paper with the thesis, "The single most important reason for the rebellion was defense of the institution of slavery male hormones."
The colonists objected to being taxed or otherwise controlled by Britain without having representation in Parliament. No taxation without representation
In contrast, the southern Democrats who formed the Confederacy were already well represented in the US governement at all levels before their departure. Although they failed to stop the new Republican party gain seats in 1858 or win the Presidency in 1860, the Democrats maintained hold on a signifigant portion of governement power.
In hindsight, one might argue that had the south stayed in the Union they would have been able to restrain Levaithan, and preserve their culture also.
The only one, it might be added. Of course, the same thing would have resulted had the Confederacy won.
the institution of slavery was thankfully DYING before the WBTS & every SMART man knew it.
free dixie,sw
plus, everyone in the southland knew that the only hope for perpetuating our civil rights was separation from the self-righteous,arrogant,imperialist north.
free dixie,sw
the REVISIONIST HISTORIOGRAPHERS, out of the most extreme, leftist,elitist fringe of poison-ivy league academia, came up with the "slavery was all" theory in about 1965, as a COVERUP for the THOUSANDS of damnyankee atrocities committed by the bluebelly army against CIVILIANS & HELPLESS CSA POWs.
IF they could convince the populus that the WBTS was a crusade against slavery (and they KNEW it was NOT!), then the atrocities might be seen as less hideous!
free the southland NOW,sw
Best of luck.
bump
D, I trust you'll help him out with this the same way you did me.
Help you? Sorry. You're way beyond help. You live for the Lost Cause Mythology.
Yes, some colonists resented being taxed and not having citizenship rights. Many resented not being allowed by the Brits to settle on the other side of the Alleghenies. Many resented the poor prices they got on their products from British merchants. Other resented to inflated prices they were forced to pay London merchants for imports. Many resented the Crown's appointment of hostile governors or the forced dissolution of their elected legislatures. They resented a lot of things Parliament was doing to them, and they protested against those things as Englishmen had a right to do. But they never once took up arms or resorted to violence UNTIL the British attempted to take those common law right to protest away from them at the point of Red Coat bayonets. And even then, even after the deaths of many of their comrades, the destruction of many of their farms, the ruin of their businesses, they continued their appeals to the King to respect their rights as Englishmen. For over a year while war raged, they continued to petition for nothing more than their rights as Englishmen. Only when they were repeatedly rebuffed by both the King and parliament did they realize that they were no longer Englishmen. Only then did they declare independence.
And they said the following at the time of their declaration:
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.Of course, Gianni, I would not expect someone so easily propagandized by the slave power's Lost Cause mythology to understand the intricacies of the causes of the American Revolution.
BTW. Below is the list of “Causes” from 1776 that has only one minor mention of taxes way down the list and that as only a secondary point. Can you show use an equally compelling list from 1860? --- or one that even mentions taxes?
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Tick, tick, tick...
I wonder if it's worth mentioning that every one of the items in your little list is related to wealth and power, which is exactly what I said the revolution was about, only to be rebuffed by you in your insistance that no, it wasn't about wealth and power, unless you take three paragraphs to spell out the words "wealth" and "power" without ever using either.
Whatever.
"When goods do not cross borders, armies will" - Frederic Bastiat
History, which is full of wars over commercial exchanges, tends to support his prediction.
Sumter was shot up because a fleet of yankee warships was en route there. That is hardly the behavior of somebody who was leaving us alone.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Suspending habeas corpus without authority, launching a war while the legislature was out of session.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
The attack upon the Missouri State Government that disbanded its legislature fleeing for their lives, individual arrests of secessionist legislators in Maryland
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Ignoring court orders such as Ex Parte Merryman.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Ignoring court orders such as Ex Parte Merryman, ordering the arrest of the Chief Justice.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
Installing his own military government over Missouri, installing his own generals over New Orleans and other regions that fell early in the war, permitting those individuals such as Ben Butler to loot the civilian populations located there.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
The raising of an invasion army while Congress was out of session.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
Suspending habeas corpus to allow military arrests and imprisonment in contradiction of civil judiciary policies.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation
Using the army to chase out the constitutional Missouri government and installing his own in its place.
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us
Stationing provost marshalls throughout captured confederate and some non-confederate territory for the purpose of administering armed military rule upon the local populations.
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States
Sham court martial hearings that exonerated war criminals such as Gen. Robert Milroy, sham investigations that refused to reign in war criminals like Fielding Hurst, the failure to prosecute war criminals like Gen. William T. Sherman, and light slap-on-the-wrist punishments for those few criminals that were convicted (i.e. white northern soldiers convicted of rape against southern civilians who got a few months in prison or, in one case, the "punishment" of having his head shaved).
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
Proclamation of a blockade against the southern states
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
The Morrill Tariff, which was enacted against unanimous opposition from the southern members of congress.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury
Suspension of habeas corpus, military arrests, military executions of southern civilians on the spot and without any form of trial or charges.
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
Replace "English" with "American" and "colonies" with "states" and you have a description of Lincolnian actions in what is now West Virginia and Missouri.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments
The entirity of reconstruction, which basically threw out the southern state constitutions and governments to be replaced with northern ones.
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
Missouri during the war, the rest of the south after the war.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
Accurately describes Lincoln's invasion of the south itself.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
Accurately describes Lincoln's invasion of the south itself.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Lincoln's recruit of immigrants, prison populations, and other mercenaries to fill the ranks of his armies, and the behavior of those armies against the civilian populations of the south.
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