In April of 1861 the bloodiest war that America had ever been involved in broke out between the states in the North, the Union, and the South, the Confederate States of America. This war was costly for each side in terms of man power, will and finances. In order to counteract the financial drain that the war was putting on the Confederacy’s economy the treasury began producing sheets of bonds that could be bought by the public and then sold back to the Confederate government at the end of the war for certain percentage gain.
I am interested in researching these bonds because I have grown up seeing them in my house for as long as I can remember. My family has always had four prints of Confederate bonds hanging in our house. After having looked at these bonds for so long, I have noticed the intricacies that were put into the design of the bonds, hence why I am very eager to know how these bonds were made along with how the designs were put on the paper without modern printing technology. I have also noticed that entire bond had multiple coupons attached each worth a set amount and a interest rate, which has sparked my interest in how the bonds would be redeemed and for what amount. I have never really known much about these bonds except that they were used to help fund the Confederate army during the Civil War, and that as the war came to a close they were plagued by inflation.
I feel that this will be a fantastic opportunity to expand my knowledge about this cultural
“The mobilization of the northern political economy for war, however, both provided the major impetus for state expansion and reshaped the antebellum agenda. The war had an even greater impact on the structure and substantive policies of the emergent Southern Confederacy” (Bensel, 3). The war between the North and the South resulted in different governmental leaderships. The South substantially depended on internal market development like tobacco and cotton crops. To finance the war, the North depended on local banking institutions. As a result, during the Civil War, the Northern financial class grew substantially. New York became the state with one of the greatest banking institutions. In comparison, the South was empowered by statist elements and strict policies to organize the resources of the South (Bensel,
None of this paper money could be redeemed, or traded for, gold or silver as was common in the early nineteenth century. The Confederate government had no gold or silver to make coins. Instead, Confederate paper money was like a loan a promissory note or promise to pay at a later time. At the start of the war, when southerners expected to win the war, they were willing to trust that their paper dollars would
During the Civil War the Confederate’s finances were a disaster which cause many problems for the newly formed government. The new Confederate government had to create a treasury and a revenue- collecting bureaucracy from scratch. The desperate Confederate congress began taxing nearly everything, but enforcement of the tax was poor and evasion easy. The blockade of Southern ports enforced by the Union Navy also caused the prices on goods to go up. Dissent over the price of war increasingly erupted into mass demonstrations, rioting, looting, burning of house, and desertions from the military.
Financing the war was also a problem. Americans had been unaccustomed to paying taxes to the national government, but both sides had to end the tradition of hard money and minimal government by raising taxes, issuing war bonds, and printing paper money. Inflation was serious in the North and devastating in the South by 1865.
The Union blockade did not take full effect for many months, allowing the Southerners time to export their cotton harvest, and reap the financial benefits. Alexander Stephens had a plan at the start of the war that he estimated would net around $800M for the Confederacy, providing a sound financial base for the war effort. Although somewhat optimistic, and affected by practical difficulties, it is fair to say that the cotton crop would have been far better exported than stockpiled or burnt. Secondly, the Confederate government displayed an unwillingness to tax her citizens, preferring instead to print money, and suffer the rampant inflation that resulted. The Union financed its war effort mainly from taxation and bonds, while 60% of Southern funds came from unbacked paper money. The problems associated with this are clear to see: prices rose 100-fold over the four years of war, wiping out southerners' savings, and devastating the economy. The government's reaction to this, the third mistake, was to impress public goods for military use. However, rather than curbing inflation, this merely acted as a disincentive to supply, making essential items increasingly scarce. This, coupled with the poor infrastructure and parochialism of some State governors, meant that the army went hungry in a nation with the capacity to produce plenty of food. Finally, it is argued that the Confederate government should have done more to improve infrastructure and
In battling the British in the Revolutionary War, the American rebels did just as the great French military and political leader, Napoleon Bonaparte advised, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”. Though there were a great deal of missed opportunities and misguided actions taken by both sides of this war, none were as great as those by the ministers in London and British Generals Howe and Burgoyne. However, of these three, one held a great deal of responsibility for Britain’s failure to suppress the American rebels by 1777. This person was indeed, General Howe.
The cost of the American Civil War goes far beyond the lives of the more than 600,000 Americans who perished from 1861 to 1865; one of the more influential factors that many historians seem to fail to mention when speaking of the Civil War is the actual financial cost and the economic toll that the war had on both of its parties. Union efforts to suppress the South from receding cost the government upwards of 3 billion dollars, and thus the government had to rely heavily on the support of Northern financial classes and institutions in order to fund the war. Through its implementations of many fiscal policies and creation of client groups during the Civil War and following Reconstruction period, the statist Union government was able to create
The war destroyed much of the wealth that had existed in the South. All accumulated investment Confederate bonds was forfeit; most banks and railroads were bankrupt. Income per person in the South dropped to less than 40% of that of the North, a condition that lasted until well into the 20th century. Southern influence in the
A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.
During the 1860s there were many issues and that the Southern and Northern states needed to work on. In 1861 hundreds of thousands of Americans volunteered to fight in the Civil War, also known as the First Modern War. The main causes of this war were the economic and social differences between the North and the South. These differences led to other fundamental issues such as slavery and its abolition. In addition to that as the war was coming to its end, federal authorities found themselves presiding over the transition from slavery to freedom.After the war, there was a 12-year period best known as the Reconstruction and the main goals that it had were to get the Confederate States back into the Union, to rebuilt the Southern economy
America is the home of the free because of the brave. Most Americans know this to be true because of our current armed forces but more importantly our past. Our past militiamen and soldiers have gained us freedoms and homestead of our own religions, families, and the power to make our own decisions. Over the past few weeks I have read many different articles and a narrative by Fred Anderson, “The war that made America.”. Through all these things I’ve come to see how big of an impact our armies have made past and present. The thing people don’t take into consideration is that from the founding of Jamestown until 1785 the American colonial society was in a constant state of conflict.
In the late 18th century America had its contentions with the British which led to the American Revolutionary war. Some of these contentions were; The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, and The Declaration of Independence. These events were the cause of the establishing of a new free country called The United States of America.
In the beginning when America was uniting and trying to form its official government the northern states and the southern states had already different greatly from each other. The North was industrializing and working on expanding west and the South was booming with farming and its famous cash crop. The North wanted to abolish slavery and the South did not. Since the North and South had so many differences and could not keep a steady compromise, heavy tensions arose between the North and the South which then caused the Southern states of America to decide to leave the American Union and create their own Southern Confederacy. This tore our nation apart. The American Civil War had begun and the very people that were once neighbors had each
The American civil war began in 1861 and ended in 1865. It was a War in which people were probably suffering the most. With a total death people close to 620,000 and million more injured. This event was a decisive one, according to the United States history. Through the North to the South, and the East to the West, that period of battle and civil War let engraved marks in population minds, which turn out is a watershed for Slaves and Freeman. One of the important turning points of the civil War was the importance to finance it. It cost a lot to both part of the United States to entertain war and battle during approximately four years. For example, the national debt rose from $65 million in 1860 to $2.6 billion in 1866. Nevertheless civil
Abraham Lincoln once stated “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln is a hero for the citizens of America because his determination and courage to ending slavery even if it meant war caused peace in this nation. Slavery was the vital cause of the American Civil War. The north and the south both had their differences on how to run the country. People in the North believed in unity and that slavery should not exist because “all men are created equally.” On the other hand, the South believed in continuing slavery. People tried to talk it out and come to a middle ground after both sides compromising, however that didn’t work and caused war. Ideological differences were a vital role to making the American Civil War an inevitable event.