There are our four main reasons why the economy of the South became so bad during the Civil War. One reason was present even before the war because the North had been very strong industrial and transportation businesses while the South lacked in that same category due to the focus of plantations and slavery. The second reason why the economy was weak was because during the war, the battles were mostly faught in the South leaving areas of land destroyed such as plantations. The plantations were apart of how the South made money therefore once some plantations were gone then money from those plantations were also gone. A third reason why the economy of the South became bad during the Civil War was because of the Union blockade of Southern ports.