Between 1861 and 1865, the Union blockade cut off Confederate cotton supplies to French textile mills. However France had amassed a large surplus of cotton in 1861, and shortages did not occur until late 1862. By 1863 shortages caused the "famine du coton" (cotton famine). Mills in Alsace, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and Normandy saw prices of cotton double by 1862 and were forced to lay off many workers. However there were cotton imports from India and from the Union, and also government-sponsored public works projects to provide jobs for unemployed textile workers. Napoleon was eager to help the Confederacy, but his two foreign ministers were strongly opposed, as were many business interests. They recognized that trade with the Union trumped the need for Confederate cotton. The Union was the chief importer of French silk, wines, watches, pottery and porcelain, and was an essential provider of wheat and potash to the French economy. As a result the economic factors weighted in favor of neutrality.