Part 4 of a Series on Reconstruction: Economic and Political Tyranny

Via Mike

 

The high tariff policies that touched off Southern Secession in 1860-61 were instituted and kept in place until 1913. As feared, these high tariffs increased the costs of living and business in the South.

This put its chief export, cotton, at a competitive disadvantage with Brazilian, Indian, and Egyptian cotton. Ninety-five percent of U.S. tax revenues came from tariffs, of which over 80 percent was collected in the South, and over 75 percent was used to enrich and subsidize Northern industry and build Northern infrastructure.

One asset the South had left after the war despite all the destruction was five million bales of cotton.

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