Economic Output North and South before the War

[beartowner]

Ladies and Gents,

I'm looking for the economic output of North and South before the war broke out as part of my research. I have some good credible source material that tells me it was North 92%/South 8%. But most of the information on the actual figures is -at best - sketchy.

Can anyone verify this at all?

Dave Burt

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Economic Output North and South before the War

Do you mean "economic" or "industrial?" The economic output of the South was quite considerable, with the value of cotton exports in 1860 about 50% greater than the entire budget of the Federal government. For manufacturers, it's definitely slanted to the North, but you have to both define "North" (i.e., non-slave states or states that ended up fighting on the northern side) and decide what you want to measure and how. The old Centennial Commission history gives the "North" 110,000 manufacturing plants vs.18,000 in the "South," but without much breakdown.

If I really wanted all the details, I'd check out the 1860 American Almanac (http://books.google.com/books?id=gLY...lmanac&f=false), Hunt's Commercial Review (http://books.google.com/books?id=eaY...page&q&f=false), and the 1860 Census (e.g., on manufactures: http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decenni...s/1860c-01.pdf).

[beartowner]

Re: Economic Output North and South before the War

Michael,
Just to clarify it is INDUSTRIAL output I'm looking into. My mistake there. I'm interested in the states that fought on both sides and their industrial output. Thanks for the tips, I will look into them.

Dave Burt

[rmilstead]

Re: Economic Output North and South before the War

Dave,

If you are not familiar with it, I suggest that you get a hold of a copy of Harold S. Wilson's "Confederate Industry - Manufacturers and Quartermasters in the Civil War", University Press of Mississippi, 2002. In his introduction he discusses Southern Manufacturing circa 1860 and does provide a lot of data at a fairly granular level. His focus is on mill output and textile manufacture but he does provide other reliant information. Also included are a number of references that may yield additional sources for information.

Dick Milstead

[beartowner]

Re: Economic Output North and South before the War

Thanks for the tip Dick. I do have it in my library, but I had forgotton about it.

Regards

Dave Burt

[csuniforms]

Re: Economic Output North and South before the War

You should also check the different Census Reports of the 1850's and early 1860's. They could help you with statistics.

CSuniforms
Tom Arliskas