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As the Civil War progressed and victory for the South seemed less and less likely, its value declined. After the Confederacy's defeat, its money had no value, and individuals and banks lost large sums. The first series of Confederate paper money, issued in March 1861, bore interest and had a total circulation of $1,000,000. [1]
Christopher Memminger (1803–1888), the first Secretary of Treasury of the Confederate States of America. The South financed a much lower proportion of its expenditures through direct taxes than the North. The share of direct taxes in total revenue for the North was about 20%, while for the South the same share was only about 8%.
The main prewar agricultural products of the Confederate States were cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane, with hogs, cattle, grain and vegetable plots. Pre-war agricultural production estimated for the Southern states is as follows (Union states in parentheses for comparison): 1.7 million horses (3.4 million), 800,000 mules (100,000), 2.7 million dairy cows (5 million), 5 million sheep (14 million ...
The Confederate States of America (1861-1865) started with an agrarian-based economy that relied on slave-worked plantations for the production of cotton for export to Europe and to the northern states. If classed as an independent country, the area of the Confederate States would have ranked as the fourth-richest country of the world in 1860. [31]
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In the 1971 spaghetti Western film The Last Traitor, there is $200,000 worth of Confederate gold. In the 1994 film Timecop, a single traveler from the future hijacks a shipment of Confederate gold using advanced automatic weapons with laser sighting. This gold is mentioned later to be used in untraceable payment to terrorists in the 20th century.
Both the individual Confederate states and later the Confederate government printed Confederate States of America dollars as paper currency in various denominations, with a total face value of $1.5 billion. Much of it was signed by Treasurer Edward C. Elmore. Inflation became rampant as the paper money depreciated and eventually became worthless.
Before the Civil War, the United States used gold and silver coins as its official currency. Paper currency in the form of banknotes was issued by privately owned banks, the notes being redeemable for specie at the bank's office. Such notes had value only if the bank could be counted on to redeem them; if a bank failed, its notes became worthless.