page_title: Confederate war finance
section_title: Other sources of revenue
hierarchical_section_title: Confederate war finance / Other sources of revenue
caption_attribution_description: 1861 Confederate States of American half dollar coin, front and back
context_page_description: Confederate war finance involved the various means, fiscal and monetary, through which the Confederate States of America financed its war effort during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. As the war lasted for nearly the entire existence of the Confederacy, military considerations dominated national finance.
  Early in the war the Confederacy relied mostly on tariffs on imports and on taxes on exports to raise revenues. However, with the imposition of a voluntary self-embargo in 1861, as well as the blockade of Southern ports, declared in April 1861 and enforced by the Union Navy, the revenue from taxes on international trade declined. Likewise, the financing obtained through early voluntary donations of coins and bullion from private individuals in support of the Confederate cause, which early on proved quite substantial, dried up by the end of 1861. As a result, the Confederate government had to resort to other means of financing its military operations. A "war-tax" was enacted but proved difficult to collect. Likewise, the appropriation of Union property in the South and the forced repudiation of debts owned by Southerners to Northerners failed to raise substantial revenue.
context_section_description: The Confederate government also tried to raise revenue through unorthodox means. In the first half of 1861, when the support for secession and the military effort was running strong, the donation of coins and gold to the government accounted for about 35% of all sources of government funds. This source, however, dried up over time as individuals and institutions in the South both ran down their personal holdings of bullion and became less willing to make donations as war-weariness set in. As a consequence, by the summer of 1862, the share of government revenue coming from these donations fell to less than 1%. Over the course of the entire war, this source of revenue contributed only 0.2% of total wartime expenditure.
  Another potential source of finance could be found in the property and physical capital owned by Northerners in the South, and the debts owed by individuals in a parallel manner. The Sequestration Act of 1861 provided for confiscation of all Union "lands, tenements, goods and chattels, right and credits" and the transfer of debt obligation on the part of Confederate citizens from Northern creditors directly to the Confederate government. However, many Southerners proved unwilling to transfer their debt obligations. Furthermore, what exactly constituted "Northern property" proved hard to define in practice. As a result, the share of this source of revenue in government funding never exceeded 0.34% and ultimately contributed only 0.25% to the overall financial war effort.
caption: Confederate half dollar coin
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