[DiogenesLamp]

If the South had such large tax revenues, why couldn’t the Confederacy afford to finance their war effort.

The Taxes came from import Tariffs. The imports came in as payment for Southern Exports which made up about 80% of all US Exports to Europe.

First thing Lincoln did was to throw up a blockade that would stop trade between the South and Europe. No trade, no money. More importantly, the European powers never got to make the much larger profits they would have made with Southern independence.

Had the Europeans established normalized trade with the South and therefore reaped those larger profits, the Europeans would have been very interested in assisting the South in maintaining it's independence.

The War was about that 200 million dollars per year in trade going to the South instead of to New York and Washington DC.

[Garth Tater]

"The War was about that 200 million dollars per year in trade going to the South instead of to New York and Washington DC."

Wait a minute. Let me get this straight...  you're saying the Civil War was primarily about money and not slavery?  What are you going to come up with next? The Iraq war wasn't about WMDs and Syria isn't about supporting moderate  jihadis  reformers?

[Blue House Sue]

“First thing Lincoln did was to throw up a blockade that would stop trade between the South and Europe.”

That’s a proven war time strategy.