“It is an amazing thing what capital can do to anyplace at which it is applied”
Well, if the previous thirty years are any indication, the application of capital in the South was pretty much limited to buying more acreage to grow cotton, and more slaves to work the expanded acreage. What makes you think that in the bling of an eye, they would all of a sudden start building iron foundries, textile mills, shoe factories, railroads, shipyards etc.
People do what is easy, but the ability to do that was evaporating. Slaves couldn't plantation farm any of the territories, and so at some point capital would have to be directed elsewhere.
What makes you think that in the bling of an eye, they would all of a sudden start building iron foundries, textile mills, shoe factories, railroads, shipyards etc.
Who said "blink of an eye"? More Capital would spur growth, some would be immediate, but some would be years in coming. The larger industries would take time, but they would happen. Smaller industries would proliferate quickly.
The one thing Capital would not do is sit around doing nothing.