The correct answer is D: Differences in regional economies:
The United States was primarily agricultural in the years before , during and immediately after the civil war. About three quarters of the population lived in rural areas, including farms and small towns. Nevertheless, the Industrial Revolution that had hit England decades before , established itself in the "former colonies".
While factories were built in the North and South, the vast majority of industrial manufacturing was taking place in the north. The South had almost 25% of the country's free population , but only 10% of the country capital in 1860. The North had five times the number of factories as the South and over ten times the number of factory workers. 90% of the nation's skilled workers were in the North.
In the North, labor was expensive and workers were mobile and active. The influx of immigrants from Europe provided competition in the labor market.
Te South economy, however, was built on the labor of African slaves, who were oppressed into providing cheap labor.
A critical economic issue that divided the south and the north was that of tariffs. Tariffs were taxes placed on imported goods, the money from which would go to the government. Whenever the federal government wanted to raise tariffs, Southern Congressmen generally opposed it and Northern Congressmen generally supported it . Southerners generally favored low tariffs because this kept the cost of imported goods low, which was important in the south's import- oriented economy.
In the North, however, high tariffs were viewed favorably because such tariffs would make imported goods more expensive. That way, goods produced in the North would seem relatively cheap, and Americans would want to buy American goods instead of European items. Since tariffs would protect domestic industry from foreign competition.
Americans in the West were divided on the issue . In the Southwest, where cotton was primarily a commodity , people generally promoted low tariffs . In the Northwest and parts of Kentucky, where hemp was a big crop , people supported high tariffs.
