Editing Confederate States of America (section)

====National production====
[[File:Advantages.jpg|thumb|right|238x238px|The Union had large advantages in men and resources at the start of the war; the ratio grew steadily in favor of the Union]]

The Confederacy started its existence as an agrarian economy with exports, to a world market, of cotton, and, to a lesser extent, tobacco and [[sugarcane]]. Local food production included grains, hogs, cattle, and gardens. The cash came from exports but the Southern people spontaneously stopped exports in early 1861 to hasten the impact of "[[King Cotton]]", a failed strategy to coerce international support for the Confederacy through its cotton exports. When the blockade was announced, commercial shipping practically ended (the ships could not get insurance), and only a trickle of supplies came via blockade runners. The cutoff of exports was an economic disaster for the South, rendering useless its most valuable properties, its plantations and their enslaved workers. Many planters kept growing cotton, which piled up everywhere, but most turned to food production. All across the region, the lack of repair and maintenance wasted away the physical assets.

The eleven states had produced $155 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=155000000|start_year=1860}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) in manufactured goods in 1860, chiefly from local gristmills, and lumber, processed tobacco, cotton goods and [[naval stores]] such as turpentine. The main industrial areas were border cities such as Baltimore, Wheeling, Louisville and St. Louis, that were never under Confederate control. The government did set up munitions factories in the Deep South. Combined with captured munitions and those coming via blockade runners, the armies were kept minimally supplied with weapons. The soldiers suffered from reduced rations, lack of medicines, and the growing shortages of uniforms, shoes and boots. Shortages were much worse for civilians, and the prices of necessities steadily rose.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Conn Bryan|title=Confederate Georgia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oeZr20kWbiAC&pg=PA106|year=2009|publisher=U. of Georgia Press|pages=105–109|isbn=978-0820334998}}</ref>

The Confederacy adopted a [[tariff]] or tax on imports of 15%, and imposed it on all imports from other countries, including the United States.<ref>[http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/tariff/tariff.html Tariff of the Confederate States of America, May 21, 1861].</ref> The tariff mattered little; the Union blockade minimized commercial traffic through the Confederacy's ports, and very few people paid taxes on goods smuggled from the North. The Confederate government in its entire history collected only $3.5&nbsp;million in tariff revenue. The lack of adequate financial resources led the Confederacy to finance the war through printing money, which led to high inflation. The Confederacy underwent an economic revolution by centralization and standardization, but it was too little too late as its economy was systematically strangled by blockade and raids.<ref>Ian Drury, ed. ''American Civil War: Naval & Economic Warfare'' (2003) p. 138. {{ISBN|0-00-716458-0}}. "The Confederacy underwent a government-led industrial revolution during the war, but its economy was slowly strangled."</ref>