Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Confederate States dollar was first issued just before the outbreak of the American Civil War by the newly formed Confederacy.It was not backed by hard assets, but simply by a promise to pay the bearer after the war, on the prospect of Southern victory and independence.
Confederate half dollar coin. The Confederate government also tried to raise revenue through unorthodox means. In the first half of 1861, when the support for secession and the military effort was running strong, the donation of coins and gold to the government accounted for about 35% of all sources of government funds.
During the American Civil War, Confederate currency included $500 and $1,000 notes. [7] The earliest (1861) federal banknotes included high-denomination notes such as three-year interest-bearing notes of $500, $1,000, and $5,000, authorized by Congress on July 17, 1861. [8]
The Act of March 9, 1861 passed by the Congress of the Confederate States authorized the issue of $1,000,000 in Confederate banknotes, followed by an additional $1,000,000 in August, 1861. Seven series of banknotes were authorized for $678,000,000, but just over $1.5 billion was actually issued.
The Confederate federal and state governments spent the equivalent of $1.0 billion in US dollars. The US obtained 21% of the war funding from taxation, 66% from borrowing, and 13% from inflation. By contrast, the Confederacy obtained only 5% from taxation, 35% from borrowing, and 60% from inflation.
In 1862, the greenback declined against gold until by December, gold had become at a 29% premium. By spring of 1863, the greenback declined further, to 152 against 100 dollars in gold. However, after the Union victory at Gettysburg, the greenback recovered to 131 dollars to 100 in gold. In 1864, it declined again, as Grant was making little ...
In February 1862, he acquired a sample of Confederate money and quickly started producing his own counterfeits. His first printing consisted of 3,000 five-dollar notes, each stamped at the bottom with the words, "Fac-simile Confederate Note – Sold wholesale and retail by S.C. Upham 403 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia."
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 ...