The irony of nations turning a wartime weapon on their own citizens during peacetime has escaped attention in the flood of recent commentary on international trade. Note, however, that the goals of wartime blockades and peacetime import restrictions are similar in that both seek to prevent foreign goods from entering a particular market. Logical consistency implies that if wartime blockades hurt enemies, peacetime restrictions hurt our own economies. Alternatively, if peacetime restrictions improve a nation's economic strength, wartime blockades are treasonous. A Lesson from U.S. History During the U.S. Civil War, the North blockaded the major seaports of the South.
Historians generally agree that the South's economic strength was sapped by the blockade.
Entering and leaving Confederate seaports became more costly, usually requiring the skills of blockade-runners. The adverse economic effects of the blockade on the South were twofold. First, the blockade made imported goods less available, so that the Confederacy had to eliminate certain uses to which imports heretofore had been put. The resources the Confederacy previously had been using to pay for these imports had to be redirected to less-preferred goods. Second, the imports that did slip through the blockade came at a greater cost.