Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 30.djvu/377

 Why We Failed to ^Y in. 369

supplies that belonged to the army, and all the ships and the entire armament and equipment of the navy. If there had been a fair division of these resources between the two sections, the South would not have been totally destitute of them in the beginning, and would not have suffered grievously for the most necessary military munitions, equipments, and supplies.

It then became necessary to create from the very beginning estab- lishments not only for the manufacture of arms, ammunition, equip- ments, war vessels and everything required for military operations, but it was also absolutely requisite to manufacture for all the needs of daily life the ordinary articles of common use that had been cut off from the Southern people by the naval blockade instituted by the Northern Government. Unfortunately, the Southern people had devoted themselves to the production of raw material and were there- fore dependent on Northern States of the Union and on foreign countries for the simplest articles of daily use.

Just here comes in the most important question of finances. A war cannot long be successfully carried on without money. It is re- quired for the purchase of material and supplies, and for the wages of the soldiers in the field. The men who have left their wives and children behind while they are standing in the forefront of battle must be able to send home for the support of their dear ones the money they earn in the public defence.

The plans of the Southern financiers were based on sound principles. In the four years of the war the South produced 20,000,000 bales of cotton worth $600,000,000, and many million pounds of tobacco, worth also a great deal of money. It was proposed that the Con- federate Government should purchase these products with bonds, and then ship them to the great European markets, where they would meet with the ready sale. This scheme, however, was defeated by the Federal blockade of Southern ports, which was begun in the summer of 1861. A belief was cherished in the South that the great manufacturing European nations would break the blockade in order to get cotton for their people to spin and wear, but this expectation proved wholly abortive, and the Southern Government was forced to imitate their adversaries in the North by issuing paper money.

The value of this paper currency held up very well in the begin- ning, but it rapidly lost the confidence of the people, and this fact, more than anything else, hurt the Confederate cause. It is true that the Confederate Government negotiated considerable loans in Europe, but the money was kept there to pay for warships built and equipped in European ports. From this brief statement of