Question

What economic problems were faced by the north and south during the civil war?

Answer 1

The South faced much more hardship economically during the war (because their agricultural economy based on slave labor made mobilization of resources more difficult while the North's economic and industrial capacity soared during the war as it continued its rapid industrialization). In the South, the biggest problems were lack of labor, poverty and poor relief, especially in times of acute food shortages. Also, their money had no base and was ultimately worthless, making buying and selling goods extremely difficult. They couldn't get aid from foreign nations due to their lack of capital and resources to spare (and when cotton and other cash crop fields were destroyed and lost money, it was a nail in the coffin). The North, on the other hand, had a solid economy with money well-backed by gold and silver. Their industrialization also meant that the main problem faced, which they could recover from and work through, was labor shortages (from all men going to fight).

Answer 2

During the Civil War, the South had a lot more economic problems and problems in general, but the North had some too. The North and South were drastically different during this time and had different viewpoints on a lot of things. The South wanted to fight to keep slavery, so that was the top reason why the Civil War happened.

One of the main reasons why the South was having more struggles, along with economic struggles, was because they were focused on agriculture. The North was already focused on industrial work, which was making it easy for them to make guns, ammo, and other needed supplies for war. Since the South was so focused on agriculture, they did not have a lot of the same supplies the North had and would often rely on Great Britain or other countries to send them supplies overseas. A lot of the battles of the Civil War were fought in the South, which made it so many of their crops and land were destroyed, which was their prime source of income. They did not have the funds to keep going, they did not have enough troops to keep going, and their central government was weak and was not helping the war cause.

The North also met their fair share of struggles, but was much better off than the South was. Due to how industrialized the North was, this made it hard to find many of the workers needed to man these factories. Along with this, many of the Northern people were very against going to war and many were disinterested in even participating in it whatsoever, which caused draft riots and overall riots on the basis of war.