The early French explorers wanted to locate a northwest passage around North America to India. They were still exploring the America's.
If there was no blockade, the Confederacy would have gotten foreign aid from France or others. That would increase their imports and given them more supplies. They would have also been able to export cotton, their major crop, for money. The blockade stopped them from doing that and basically choked them into defeat, that is why it was called the Anaconda Plan.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, nearly every republic moved from a Communist economic system to a "mixed" economy, since they wanted to embrace capitalism but needed to transition from a "planned" economy first.