Economic Causes Of The Civil War

The American Civil War demonstrates the significance of economic factors in the socioeconomic stability of a country. While the economic status of the North and South states was not the only factor leading to the Civil War, it was the leading cause of the war. The economy was in transition during the Civil war, from agriculture to industry, and the North and South were on either side of this transition. Nonetheless, the Union and Confederates were both successful economically despite the differences in their economic models. However, the North emerged superior to the South in a warring nation. Therefore, economic status often indicates ideologies, and the ideological difference led to the Civil War, primarily masked by economic reasons.
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The South relied on Britain to sell cotton and access imports, making it much more difficult to make radical and independent economic decisions. As such, a federal banking system and an independent treasury were not attractive for the South, but for the North, it was a practical and economically viable perspective. These economic differences went further before the war, with the Democrat founders and the Jacksonians perceiving the acceptance of an independent Treasury as a necessary evil which was not a positive outlook for the South. Such positions in the South led to a 5000% increase in price level due to the Confederacy's reliance on printing the grayback to avoid using other financing options . Furthermore, the South's persistence in protecting slavery and the commitment to prevent the federal government from limiting enslavers' rights meant that political power significantly influenced the economic differences between the North and the South. These political positions meant it was challenging, if not impossible, to outvote the states with slave interests in Congress. The South was keen to limit federal power as much as possible to secure their interests at the expense of future economic development. Small decentralized governments at the state level meant the South retained economic stability based on the familiar cotton

In contrast, the wealthiest in the South did not suffer the consequences of the war as much as the poorer Southerners did. The richest, who owned large tracts of land, were exempted from being drafted into the war, while the poor southerners who owned small farms, who were the majority, were drafted into the battlefield . The wealthy could pay their way out of drafting.
The declining economy of the South created economic difficulties for the southerners, in a letter written by a poor North Carolina woman to her governor. In the letter, the woman requested the discharge of her husband from the Confederate army, writing: "I would like to know what he is fighting for…he has nothing to fight for…I do not think that he is fighting for anything only for his family to starve" . Such strong sentiments show the economic impact civilians had to bear in meeting their basic needs and their families well-being. The women left behind during the war had to take up economic activities to ensure cotton farms ran in the South, and that enslaved people were well-managed. The economic challenges in the South also meant that the women had to take up organized activities through groups to access funding for the southern war and to acquire