The suburban citizen., 1902-07-19
SOUTH HADBILLST0BURN
FINANCIAL FACTS OF THE coNFEo.
ERAcY SOUND LIKE ROMANCE:

Done-Greed of Spectators.
The financial history Of the Confed-
crate States will never be written.
The story of the unsuccessful effort
of the Southern republic to create and
maintain currency would read like a
romance in this practical, cold-blooded
age.
At the beginning of our Civil War
the South had just closed a decade of
exceptional progress and development,
and her cotton product alone was in
such general demand that it would
have been easy to utilize it in a way
that would have strengthened the now
Government and given it n fair start.
According to experienced financiers,
the cotton stored on Southern planta-
tions and in the warehouses II the
fall of 1861 might easily have been
purchased by the Government for six
per cent. Confederate bonds. 1t could
have been shipped to Europe before
the Federal blockade became efficient,
and during the following three years it
would have yielded the enormous sum
of $1,000,O00,OCO.
And this money, mind you, would
have been gold, the only currency that
is worth anything to a new nation
forced to fight its way from the very
first.
The Southern people were patriotic
and unsel6sh, as q rule, throughout
their long struggle, and in the early
days of the Confederacy all classes
gave it their encouragement and sup
port in every possible way.
The first Confederate currency was
shabby looking stuff, printed on in
ferior paper, ard the work Of the en-
graver was so badly done that un-
scrupulous persons in the North found
1t easy to turn out counterfeits, which
soon flooded the entire South.
But the people welcomed 1t because
it was the money Of the Confederacy.
They knew very little about Mr.. c. G.
Memminger, the Secretary of the
Treasury but he had been selected by
President Davis, and that was enough
for them to know.
SO there was currency craze from
the beginning Everybody wanted the
new, crisp bills, and the prophets of
evil kept their forebodings to them
selves.
For some time the new money held
its own. During the early months
of 1861 those who came from the North
and from Europe spent their gold and
silver freely in Richmond and other
Confederate cities.
If anybody anticipated the rapid de.
probation and collapse Of the currency
he wisely held his tongue.
In 1861, from January l to May 1, Il
deprecated five per cent; by October
ten per cent, and by December II
had lost twenty per cent,
In 1862 it took $3.50 in this money
to buy 81 in gold on the 1st of Sep.
tember.
In 1868 it was down to three for
one February l, and twenty-one for
one December 10.
In 1864 it went down to twenty-three
for one, September 10, and after At.
lanta's capture and destruction it de.
preciated rapidly until the shoppers
during the Christmas holidays found
that SOL in Confederate currency was
only equal to one little gold dollar.
In 1866 it went down in a hurry
January it was sixty for one; April
it was eighty for one. BY April 2S
the cause was hopeless. A dollar in
gold then commanded $500 in Confed
crate bills. On the Goth Of the same
month it stood $500 for 81. The next
day it was $1,000 for 81, and on May
l a dollar in gold brought $1,000. the
last actual sale.
Shortly after the fall Of Savannah, in
December 1864, the months pay of o
Confederate private soldier would only
buy him a pound OF meat. A decent
hat was worth $780, a nice suit OF
clothes 5000; a busbel OF wheat from
$40 to $50; drink OF good whisky. $40
and horse several thousand dollars.
Before the final collapse Of the cur
rency in Richmond, beef, pork, and
butter sold for $35 a pound, and foul
brought $1400 barrel.
Just before the surrender at Ap
pomattox private soldiers pay for q
month was equal to only 33 cents IL
gold
The mistake was made all through
the war of turning out Confederate
currency in vast quantities.
The people could have done without
hundreds Of millions of dollars in thls
money if the Government had found 9
more satisfactory way of distributing
it.
When the currency became more
worthless every day the speculator;
were more active than ever.
They sprang up suddenly everywhere
in the South-a gang Of greedy, heart
less fellows, and through their extor
tionate methods they accumulated i'm
mense fortunes.
A remarkable aristocracy of the new
ly rich leaped to the front. Many ol
these spectators were without money
or credit in 1860. In 1864 they were