Editing Jefferson Davis (section)

====Financial policy====
{{see also|Confederate war finance}}
[[File:CSA-T16-$50-1862.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Davis $50 [[Confederate States dollar|Confederate States treasury note]] issued between April and December 1862|alt=$50 confederate bill with man's profile, man looking right]]

Davis did not take executive action to create the needed financial structure for the Confederacy. He knew very little about public finance, largely deferring to Secretary of the Treasury Memminger.{{sfn|Ball|1991|pp=9–11}} Memminger's knowledge of economics was limited, and he was ineffective at getting Congress to listen to his suggestions.{{sfnm|Ball|1991|1p=9|Todd|1954|p=1}} Until 1863, Davis's reports on the financial state of the Confederacy to Congress tended to be unduly optimistic.{{sfn|Ball|1991|p=8}}

Davis's failure to argue for needed financial reform allowed Congress to avoid unpopular economic measures,{{sfn|Ball|1991|p=8}} such as taxing planters' property{{sfnm|1a1=Ball|1y=1991|1p=234|2a1=Hattaway|2a2=Beringer|2y=2002|2p=200}}—both land and slaves—that made up two-thirds of the South's wealth.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=199}} At first the government thought it could raise money with a low export tax on cotton,{{sfn|Ball|1991|p=208}} but the blockade prevented this. In his opening address to the fourth session of Congress in December 1863,{{sfn|Davis|1863b|pp=363–367}} Davis demanded the Congress pass a direct tax on property despite the constitution.{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=272–274}} Congress complied, but the tax had too many loopholes and exceptions,{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=275–276}} and failed to produce the needed revenue.{{sfn|Todd|1954|pp=144–145}} Throughout the existence of the Confederacy, taxes accounted for only one-fourteenth of the government's income;{{sfn|Todd|1958|p=409}} consequently, the government printed money to fund the war, destroying the value of the Confederate currency.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=200}} By 1865, the government was relying on impressments to fill the gaps caused by lack of finances.{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=46–47}}