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Civil War Finance and Tax Policy: North vs. South
Richard C. K. Burdekin
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DOI:10.17265/2159-550X/2026.05.001
Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, USA
Although the Southern Confederacy’s financial failure is nearly as well-known as its eventual military defeat, lack of tax revenue did not necessarily doom the South. The South was able to stand toe-to-toe with the North through the end of 1862 and initially found more ready buyers for its bonds than did the North. Reliance on the printing press worked until the public became unwilling to continue holding Confederate Treasury notes after the tide of the war shifted in favor of the North. The South was never going to be able to match the North’s deep tax base. From a business perspective, its main missed opportunity was actually the decision to embargo its own cotton crop at the beginning of the war. The government’s belated move to organize cotton exports in 1864 was three years too late.
American Civil War, Confederacy, financial policy
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