The economic history of the American Civil War concerns the financing of the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

war efforts from 1861 to 1865, and the economic impact of the war. The Union economy grew and prospered during the war while fielding a very large

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

and

Union Navy ), (official) , colors = Blue and gold , colors_label = Colors , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label ...

.Emerson David Fite, ''Social and industrial conditions in the North during the Civil War'' (1910
online edition
/ref> The Republican Party in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

had a

Whiggish Whig history (or Whig historiography) is an approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a "glorious present". The present described is generally one with modern forms of liberal democracy ...

vision of an industrialized country, with great cities, efficient factories, productive farms, all national banks, all knit together by a modern railroad system, to be mobilized by the

United States Military Railroad The U.S. Military Railroad (USMRR) was established by the United States War Department as a separate agency to operate any rail lines seized by the government during the American Civil War. An Act of Congress of 31 January 1862 authorized Presi ...

. The

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

had resisted policies such as

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...

s to promote industry and the

Homestead Acts The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of t ...

to promote farming, because

slavery in the United States The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Sl ...

would not benefit. With the South gone and the

Northern Democratic Party The Northern Democratic Party was a leg of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party during the 1860 presidential election, when the party split in two factions because of disagreements over slavery. They held two 1860 Democratic Nat ...

weak, the Republicans enacted their legislation. At the same time, they passed new taxes to pay for part of the war and issued large amounts of bonds to pay for most of the rest.

Economic historians Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and in ...

attribute the remainder of the cost of the war to

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...

. According to Matthew Gallman, In terms of total war spending, the

federal government of the United States The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

spent $1.8 billion and the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

s spent $0.5 billion. This does not count long-term costs after the war ended, such as

veterans' benefits The US Department of Veterans Affairs provides a wide variety of benefits, e.g., educational assistance (GI Bill), healthcare, assisted living, home loans, insurance, and burial and memorial services, for retired or separated United States armed ...

. 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 Washington, D.C., the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

wrote an elaborate program of economic modernization that had the dual purpose of winning the war and permanently transforming the economy. The wartime devastation of the South was great and poverty ensued; the incomes of

White Americans White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...

dropped, but income of the

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...

rose. During

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

, railroad construction was heavily

subsidized A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

(with much

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

), but the region maintained its dependence on

cotton production Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

. Freedmen became wage laborers,

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...

s, or

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

. They were joined by many

Poor White Poor White is a sociocultural classification used to describe economically disadvantaged Whites in the English-speaking world, especially White Americans with low incomes. In the United States, Poor White (or Poor Whites of the South for ...

s, as the population grew faster than the economy. As late as 1940, the only significant

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

industries were

textile mills Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods s ...

(mostly in the upland

Carolinas The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east. Combining Nort ...

) and some

steelmaking Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and carbon/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon (the most important impurity) are removed from the sourced iron, and all ...

in Alabama. The industrial advantages of the North over the South helped secure a Northern victory in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

(1861–1865). The Northern victory sealed the destiny of the nation and its economic system. The slave-labor system was abolished; sharecropping emerged and replaced slavery to supply the labor needed for cotton production, but cotton prices plunged during the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...

, leading the

plantation complexes in the Southern United States A plantation complex in the Southern United States is the built environment (or complex) that was common on agricultural plantations in the American South from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main resid ...

to decline in profitability. Northern industry, which had expanded rapidly before and during the war, surged ahead.

Industrialists A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

came to dominate many aspects of the nation's life, including social and political affairs.

Union policy

After the war began in April 1861, President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of the Treasury

Salmon P. Chase Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States. He also served as the 23rd governor of Ohio, represented Ohio in the United States Senate, a ...

faced the massive challenge of funding it. In Congress Senator William P. Fessenden and Congressman

Thaddeus Stevens Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792August 11, 1868) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of sla ...

took the lead. Congress quickly approved Lincoln's request to assemble a 500,000-man army, but initially resisted raising taxes to pay for the war. However, after the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run in July, Congress passed the

Revenue Act of 1861 The Revenue Act of 1861, formally cited as Act of August 5, 1861, Chap. XLV, 12 Stat. 292', included the first U.S. Federal income tax statute (seSec.49. The Act, motivated by the need to fund the Civil War, imposed an income tax to be "levied, c ...

, which imposed the first

federal income tax Income taxes in the United States are imposed by the federal government, and most states. The income taxes are determined by applying a tax rate, which may increase as income increases, to taxable income, which is the total income less allow ...

in U.S. history. The act created a flat tax of three percent on incomes above $800 ($ in current dollar terms). This taxation of income reflected the increasing amount of wealth held in stocks and bonds rather than property, which the federal government had taxed in the past. As the average urban worker made $600 per year, the income tax burden fell primarily on the rich.Paludan (1993), pp. 111–112

High protective tariff

Congress passed the second and third Morrill Tariffs, the first having become law in the final months of Buchanan's tenure. These tariff acts raised import duties considerably compared, and they were designed to both raise revenue and protect domestic manufacturing against foreign competition. During the war, the tariff also helped manufacturers off-set the burden of new taxes. Compared to pre-war levels, the tariff would remain relatively high for the remainder of the 19th century. Throughout the war, members of Congress would debate whether to raise further revenue primarily through increased tariff rates, which most strongly affected rural areas in the West, or increased income taxes, which most strongly affected wealthier individuals in the Northeast.

Greenbacks

The revenue measures of 1861 proved inadequate for the funding of the war, forcing Congress to pass further bills designed to generate revenue. In February 1862, Congress passed the

Legal Tender Act Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...

, which authorized the minting of $150 million of " greenbacks." The debate was fierce as "paper money" seemed a route to excessive inflation and had no prewar support. But the Army needed to pay its suppliers and soldiers without delay. Greenbacks were the first

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable instrument, negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes w ...

s issued by the federal government since the end of the American Revolution, when the "Continentals" caused runaway inflation and became almost worthless. The new Greenbacks were not backed by specie (gold or silver), but rather by the requirement that merchants honor their face value for purchases and debts. By the end of the war, $450 million worth of greenbacks were in circulation. They were highly effective and (after borrowing) were the major solution the Treasury needed to finance the warPaludan (1993), pp. 109–110

Taxes

As military expenses soared, the Union armies faltered in their plan to capture Richmond. Pessimism grew in financial circles. The Congress passed the

Revenue Act of 1862 The Revenue Act of 1862 (July 1, 1862, Ch. 119, ), was a bill the United States Congress passed to help fund the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln signed the act into law on July 1, 1862. The act established the office of the Commissio ...

, which established a new excise tax that affected nearly every commodity, The new tax was similar to the sales tax imposed by state governments in the 20th century. According to one newspaper account, it set a federal tax on: Liquor, beer, tobacco, cigars, lard, linseed oil, paper, soap, salt, shoe leather, flour, railroad passengers (per mile), steamboat passengers, ferry boats, trolleys, advertisements, and carriages. The new law also imposed the first income tax, starting at 3% on incomes over $600 a year and 5% on incomes over $10,000. Dozens of lobbyists fought back, warning that even a small 5% tax would bankrupt small business; Congress pushed ahead because the war crisis was urgent. The new law also imposed the first national inheritance tax. To collect these taxes, Congress created the Office of the

Commissioner of Internal Revenue The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is the head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an agency within the United States Department of the Treasury. The office of Commissioner was created by Congress as part of the Revenue Act of 1862. Section ...

within the Treasury Department. Starting with three clerks it quickly expanded to 4000 clerks and field agents in 185 districts. Lincoln signed the Revenue Act on July 1, 1862, and two weeks later signed the new tariff law, that raised rates to 37%. Britain was the largest trading partner, and its protests were ignored by Americans annoyed that it had created and funded a system of blockade runners to supply the South with food and munitions. Despite these new measures, funding the war continued to be a difficult struggle for Chase and the Lincoln administration.Weisman (2002), pp. 81–82. The government continued to issue greenbacks and borrow large amounts of money, and the United States' national debt grew from $65 million in 1860 to $2 billion in 1866. Congress passed the

Revenue Act of 1864 The Internal Revenue Act of 1864, 13 Stat. 223 (June 30, 1864), increased the income tax rates established by the Revenue Act of 1862. The measure was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. Provisions Section 116 of the Act imposed the tax ...

, which represented a compromise between those who favored a more progressive tax structure and those who favored a flat tax. The act established a five percent tax on incomes greater than $600, a ten percent tax on incomes above $10,000, and raised taxes on businesses. In early 1865, Congress passed another tax increase, levying a tax of ten percent on incomes above $5000. By 1865, the income tax constituted about one-fifth of the revenue of the federal government. The federal inheritance tax would remain in effect until its repeal in 1870, while the federal income tax was repealed in 1872. Hoping to stabilize the currency, Chase convinced Congress to pass the

National Banking Act The National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 were two United States federal banking acts that established a system of national banks, and created the United States National Banking System. They encouraged development of a national currency backed by ...

in February 1863, as well as a second banking act in 1864. Those acts established the

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all natio ...

to oversee "national banks," which would be subject to federal, rather than state, regulation. In return for investing a third of their capital in federal bonds, these national banks were authorized to issue federal banknotes. After Congress imposed a tax on private banknotes in March 1865, federal banknotes would become the dominant form of paper currency in the United States.

Borrowing

Both sides tried to borrow; the Union did a much better job, primarily because the new national banking system had monetized the North's wealth. Philadelphia banker

Jay Cooke Jay Cooke (August 10, 1821 – February 16, 1905) was an American financier who helped finance the Union war effort during the American Civil War and the postwar development of railroads in the northwestern United States. He is generally acknowle ...

democratized financing. He organized highly publicized campaigns that enabled ordinary middle class citizens to purchase $50 savings bonds in monthly installments. Sales reached $1.2 billion and paid for 40% of the federal war budget. The purchasers of bonds gave up money that would have been spent on civilian goods, in return for the promise that they would be repaid with interest after the war. They were; the bonds were eventually paid off by taxpayers who were children in 1860, and who by 1890 were much wealthier than their parents. Taxes also diverted spending from the civilian into the military sector, but the burden fell entirely upon the wartime taxpayer. Probably half the savings of the North went into the war effort, but there was much left over to invest in new factories, railroads, and enterprises. The private sector flourished in the North, and shrivelled away in the South. In Philadelphia, one new factory opened every week; in the South, one closed every week. In terms of selling bonds in Europe, the Union had little luck. The main British and French banks, including the Rothschilds, were highly reluctant. Furthermore the

Trent Affair The ''Trent'' Affair was a diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. Navy captured two Confederate envoys from a British Royal Mail steamer; the Brit ...

of late 1861 angered the London bankers who saw the risk of war between Britain and the United States. However, the

Barings Bank Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's List of oldest banks in continuous operation, oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 ...

did fund U.S. arms purchases.

Confederate policy

The

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

(1861-1865) started with an agrarian-based economy that relied heavily on

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

-worked

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

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. The Confederacy had banked on European intervention but it proved a fallacy that " Cotton is King". There was an opportunity to ship as much cotton as possible to Europe in early 1861 before the Union blockade took effect. However Confederate policy was to ship none at all, so that European textile mills would demand their government intervene to help the Confederacy. The Confederates were poorly informed and did not know that European mills already had plenty of cotton in storage. Britain needed Northern grain more urgently than Southern cotton, because it was a main element of its food supply. Vigorous fund raising yielded £3 million (about $14.5 in US dollars) from the 1862 bond sale to the Erlanger bank in Paris. It was not repeated. The money was mostly wasted on ships that were never delivered (because of the Union blockade) and in futile efforts to prop up the price of Confederate bonds to fool Europeans that the new nation was doing well. The British had money to invest. They bought some Confederate bonds but spent far more on the blockade runners as in Confederate bonds. When the Union began its blockade of Confederate ports in the summer of 1861, exports of cotton fell 95 percent and the South had to restructure itself to emphasize the production of food and munitions for internal use. After losing control of its main rivers and ports, the Confederacy had to depend for transport on a weak railroad system that, with few repairs being made, no new equipment, and destructive raids, crumbled away. The financial infrastructure collapsed during the war as inflation destroyed banks and forced a move toward a

barter economy In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists distingu ...

for civilians. The Confederate government seized needed supplies and livestock (paying with Government bonds that were promised to be paid off after the war, but never were). By 1865, the Confederate economy was in ruins and the 11 states remained poor for another century.

Monetary finance and inflation

The financing of war expenditures by the means of currency issues (printing money) was by far the major avenue resorted to by the Confederate government. Between 1862 and 1865, more than 60% of total revenue was created in this way. While the North doubled its

money supply In macroeconomics, the money supply (or money stock) refers to the total volume of currency held by the public at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money", but standard measures usually include Circulation (curren ...

during the war, the volume of money in the South increased 20 times over from 1861 to 1865, and prices soared. An item that cost one Confederate dollar in 1861 cost 92 of these dollars in 1865.

Devastation

According to William Hesseltine:

Throughout the South, fences were down, weeds had overrun the fields, windows were broken, live stock had disappeared. The assessed valuation of property declined from 30 to 60 percent in the decade after 1860. In Mobile, business was stagnant;
Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
and
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
were ruined; and
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
's industrial sections were in ashes.

Estimate of Confederate losses were 94,000 killed in battle and another 164,000 who died of disease, with about 194,000 wounded. More accurate recent estimates say another 75,000-100,000 Confederate soldiers died. While damage to Union locales was limited to the border region, the Confederacy was massively affected. By the end of the war deterioration of the Southern infrastructure was widespread. The number of civilian deaths is unknown. Every Confederate state was affected, but most of the war was fought in Virginia and Tennessee, while Texas and Florida saw the least military action. Much of the damage was caused by direct military action, but most was caused by lack of repairs and upkeep, and by deliberately using up resources. Historians have recently estimated how much of the devastation was caused by military action. Paul Paskoff calculates that Union military operations were conducted in 56% of 645 counties in nine Confederate states (excluding Texas and Florida). These counties contained 63% of the 1860 white population and 64% of the slaves. By the time the fighting took place, undoubtedly some people had fled to safer areas, so the exact population exposed to war is unknown.

Notes

. * Clark, Jr., John E. ''Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat'' (2004) * Cochran, Thomas C. "Did the Civil War Retard Industrialization?." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 48.2 (1961): 197–210
online
* Gates, Paul W. ''Agriculture and the Civil War'' (1965
online
* Gilchrist, David T. and W. David Lewis, eds. ''Economic Change in the Civil War Era: Proceedings of a Conference on American Economic Institutional Change, 1850-1873'' (1965) 180pp
online review
* Goldin, Claudia D., and Frank D. Lewis. "The Economic Cost of the American Civil War: Estimates and implications." ''Journal of Economic History'' 35.2 (1975): 299–326
online
* Heidler, David S., et al. ''Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History'', (2002). 2740 pages * Resch, John P. et al. eds. ''Americans at War: Society, Culture and the Homefront vol 2: 1816-1900'' (2005)

Union

* Anderson, J. L. "The Vacant Chair on the Farm: Soldier Husbands, Farm Wives, and the Iowa Home Front, 1861–1865," ''Annals of Iowa'' (2007) 66#3 pp 241–265 * Bordewich, Fergus M. ''Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America'' (2020
excerpt
* Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln'' (1995), major scholarly biography * Gallman, Matthew J. ''The North Fights the Civil War: The Home Front'' (Ivan R. Dee, 1994
online
* McPherson, James M. ''Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era'' (1988); a major scholarly survey
online
* Paludan, Phillip Shaw. ''The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln'' (1994).

Union economy

* Blue, Frederick J. ''Salmon P. Chase'' (1987), the Secretary of the Treasury * Fite, Emerson David. ''Social and industrial conditions in the North during the Civil War'' (1910
online edition
old but still useful * Hammond, Bray. '' Sovereignty and the Empty Purse: Banks and Politics in the Civil War'' (1970
online
* Hammond, Bray. "The North's Empty Purse, 1861–1862," ''American Historical Review'', (1961) 67#1, pp. 1–1
in JSTOR
* Hyman, Hyman. ''American Singularity: The 1787 Northwest Ordinance, the 1862 Homestead and Morrill Acts, and the 1944 GI Bill'' (U of Georgia Press, 2008
online
* Lowenstein, Roger. ''Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War'' (2022); major scholarly survey
online review
* Marshall, Joan E. "Aid for Union Soldiers' Families: A Comfortable Entitlement or a Pauper's Pittance? Indiana, 1861–1865." ''Social Service Review'' 78.2 (2004): 207–242. * Merk, Frederick. ''Economic History of Wisconsin during the Civil War Decade'' (1916
online
* Mitchell, Wesley C. ''A History of the Greenbacks: With Special Reference to the Economic Consequences of Their Issue: 1862–65'' (1903
online
* Myers, Margaret G. ''Financial History of the United States'' (1970) pp 148–9
online
* Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. ''Jay Cooke: Financier of the Civil War'' (1907
online
* Richardson, Heather Cox. ''The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies During the Civil War'' (1997
excerpt
* Sexton, Jay. ''Debtor Diplomacy: Finance and American Foreign Relations in the Civil War Era, 1837-1873'' (Clarendon Press, 2005) pp. 81–133. * Studenski, Paul, and Herman E. Kroos. ''Financial History of the United States: Fiscal, Monetary, Banking, and Tariff, Including Financial Administration and State and Local Finances'' (1963) pp. 137–160. * Thomson, David K. "'Like a Cord Through the Whole Country': Union Bonds and Financial Mobilization for Victory." ''Journal of the Civil War Era'' 6.3 (2016): 347-37
online
* Weber, Thomas. ''The Northern Railroads in the Civil War, 1861–1865'' (1999) * Weiman, David F., and John A. James. “The Political Economy of the US Monetary Union: The Civil War Era as a Watershed.” ''American Economic Review'' 97#2 (2007), pp. 271–75
online
* Weisman, Steven R. ''The Great Tax Wars: Lincoln to Wilson—The Fierce Battles over Money That Transformed the Nation'' (2002
online
* Wilson, Mark R. "The Business of Civil War: Military Enterprise, the State, and Political Economy in the United States, 1850—1880." ''Enterprise & Society'' 4#5 (2003), pp. 599–605
online
* Wilson, Mark R. ''The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861–1865'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). * Ziparo, Jessica. ''This Grand Experiment: When Women Entered the Federal Workforce in Civil War–Era Washington, D.C.'' (University of North Carolina Press Books, 2017). * Zonderman, David A. "White Workers and the American Civil War." ''Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History'' (2021).

Confederacy

* Current, Richard N., et al., eds. ''Encyclopedia of the Confederacy'' (1993) (4 Volume set
one-volume abridged version online
* Coulter, E. Merton. ''The Confederate States of America, 1861–1865''. (LSU Press 1950). * Davis, William C. and Robertson Jr., James I., eds. ''Virginia at War, 1861.'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2005). * Davis, William C. ''Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America''. (2003
online
* Doyle, Brooke Graham. "Hyperinflation and the Confederacy: An Interdisciplinary Lesson in Economics and History Hyperinflation and the Confederacy: An Interdisciplinary Lesson in Economics and History." ''Social Education'' (2001
online
* Eaton, Clement. ''A History of the Southern Confederacy'' (1954
online
* Gentry, Judith Fenner. "A Confederate Success in Europe: The Erlanger Loan." ''Journal of Southern History'' 36#2 (1970), pp. 157–88
online
* Lowenstein, Roger. ''Ways and Means: Lincoln and his Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War'' (2022). * Massey, Mary Elizabeth. ''Ersatz in the Confederacy: Shortages and Substitutions on the Southern Homefront''. (reprint University of South Carolina Press, 1994). * Morgan, Chad. ''Planters' Progress: Modernizing Confederate Georgia''. (UP of Florida, 2005). * Palen, Marc-William. "The Civil War’s Forgotten Transatlantic Tariff Debate and the Confederacy’s Free Trade Diplomacy.” ''Journal of the Civil War Era'' 3#1 (2013), pp. 35–61
online
* Paskoff, Paul F. "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy", ''Civil War History'' (2008) 54#1 pp 35–62
online
* Schwab, John Christopher. ''The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865: A Financial and Industrial History of the South '' (1901) good survey of finances by a Yale economics professor
online
* Sexton, Jay. ''Debtor Diplomacy: Finance and American Foreign Relations in the Civil War Era, 1837-1873'' (Clarendon Press, 2005) pp 134–189. * Thomas, Emory M. ''Confederate Nation: 1861-1865'', 1979. Standard political-economic-social histor
online
* Thomas, Emory M. ''The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience'' (1992
online

Historiography

* Adams, Sean Patrick. "Wartime Political Economy." in ''A Companion to the US Civil War'' (2014): 1073–1086. * Craig, Lee. "Industry, Agriculture, and the Economy" in ''The American Civil War: A handbook of literature and research'' ed. by Steven E. Woodworth, and Robert Higham. (Greenwood, 1996) pp 505–514. Economic history of the United States Presidency of Abraham Lincoln 1860s in the United States United States government oversight of the American Civil War