Post by RS Davis on Dec 8, 2004 11:49:34 GMT -5
The Misnamed Conflict
by Laurence M. Vance
The continual stream of books about the Civil War generally focus on soldiers, generals, weapons, uniforms, medical procedures, and battlefield maneuvers—along with the usual accounts of suffering, misery, and death.
The calm picture of businessmen and clerks engaged in their business of buying and selling cotton at the New Orleans Cotton Exchange is not the typical image one finds on the cover or dust jacket of books about the Civil War. But the Edgar Degas painting that graces the cover of Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War tells the reader that this is no ordinary book on the Civil War.
This is an insightful book that breaks much new ground. The authors apply economic theory to historical events to illuminate the causes and consequences of the Civil War as no other book about that misnamed conflict. Although more accurate names would certainly be the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression, or more simply, Lincoln’s War, in keeping with the book’s title, I will use the more common term throughout this review.
Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation is part of the American Civil War Series—books that offer concise overviews of important persons, events, and themes in the Civil War period of America’s history. The authors, Mark Thornton and Robert Ekelund, have collaborated on many articles on the Civil War era in a variety of publications. They believe that the Civil War drastically altered “the very substance and concept of the American nation.” It was “a watershed in our nation’s development.”
Although the authors do acknowledge that “slavery and its opposition were interwoven into the economic, political, social, and religious fabric of America,” they do not consider slavery to be the sole cause of the war. Instead, they emphasize politics and economics as the major factors that led to the war. This does not mean that the issue of slavery is ignored. To the contrary, Thornton and Ekelund acknowledge that many economic interests were indeed “at least somewhat related to slavery.” But instead of the Civil War being about just slave holders and abolitionists, the authors see the war as a sectional conflict with a number of related parallels: free trade vs. protectionism, Jeffersonians vs. Hamiltonians, agrarian society vs. industrial society, states’ rights vs. strong central government. These dichotomies are all explored in the book along side of the misguided economic policies that both sides undertook to their detriment.
The strength of this book lies in its introductions. The introduction that precedes the four chapters that make up the book is especially crucial. Entitled “How Economics Illuminates the Civil War,” it imparts to the reader, with clear explanations, the basic economic principles necessary to begin the book on a firm economic footing. Those trained in economics will certainly feel right at home when they read of normal goods, inferior goods, rent seeking, agency problems, the free rider problem, price discrimination, mercantilism, elasticity of demand, and opportunity cost. But to the neophyte whose only introduction to economics might be this small book, there are also basic descriptions of supply and demand, shortages, inflation, wealth, tariffs, trade, money and banking, the division of labor, specialization, subsidies, and the gold standard. Each chapter also contains a brief introduction that not only introduces, but surveys, the contents of the chapter.
This is a book that actually makes good on its title, for tariffs, blockades, and inflation are indeed the focus of the three main chapters in the book. The tariff question in chapter one is really a study of the cultural differences between the North and South. The agrarian South, which relied heavily on imports of finished goods, saw high protective tariffs as a detriment to its economy. The authors argue that economic interests “were a major factor in the emergence of the conflict.” With no income tax, the tariff was the primary source of revenue for the federal government, but it was also means by which politically connected Northern businessmen sought to dampen foreign competition and enrich themselves. The agrarian economy of the South had always resisted high protective tariffs. This resistence was later enshrined in the new Confederate Constitution. In this chapter, Thornton and Ekelund review the antebellum tariff while explaining the economics of tariffs in general.
The Union blockade of the South is the focus of chapter two. The authors make the case that the most important battle that took place was that one at sea between the blockade runners and the blockading fleet. The blockade resulted in not only reduced production and trade, but hoarding and speculation. In addition to the economics of the blockade, Thornton and Ekelund discuss the effectiveness of the blockade and the peculiar effect of the blockade on the supply of “luxury” goods. This is not dry reading, for here we read of the Anaconda Plan, the “King Cotton” strategy, and the Rhett Butler Effect—not the terminology one usually finds in an economics book.
How both sides used inflation—the creation of new money—to finance the war and disguise its costs is explained in chapter three. Inflation hampers the ability of producers and consumers to make sound economic decisions by distorting capital values, prices, and wages. The authors relate how the South in particular resorted to the printing press to help disguise the cost of the war, devastating its economy. But in addition to illuminating the Civil War monetary policies of the Union and the Confederacy, this chapter also explores money and banking in the United States before the war, as well as its monetary legacy. The authors trace inflation and financial panics to the federal government intervening into banking, which had up until that time been primarily a state matter. The book by Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is shown to be an allegory to the growing monetary concerns of Populist movement of the late nineteenth.
[glow=red,2,300]Continued...[/glow]
by Laurence M. Vance
The continual stream of books about the Civil War generally focus on soldiers, generals, weapons, uniforms, medical procedures, and battlefield maneuvers—along with the usual accounts of suffering, misery, and death.
The calm picture of businessmen and clerks engaged in their business of buying and selling cotton at the New Orleans Cotton Exchange is not the typical image one finds on the cover or dust jacket of books about the Civil War. But the Edgar Degas painting that graces the cover of Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War tells the reader that this is no ordinary book on the Civil War.
This is an insightful book that breaks much new ground. The authors apply economic theory to historical events to illuminate the causes and consequences of the Civil War as no other book about that misnamed conflict. Although more accurate names would certainly be the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression, or more simply, Lincoln’s War, in keeping with the book’s title, I will use the more common term throughout this review.
Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation is part of the American Civil War Series—books that offer concise overviews of important persons, events, and themes in the Civil War period of America’s history. The authors, Mark Thornton and Robert Ekelund, have collaborated on many articles on the Civil War era in a variety of publications. They believe that the Civil War drastically altered “the very substance and concept of the American nation.” It was “a watershed in our nation’s development.”
Although the authors do acknowledge that “slavery and its opposition were interwoven into the economic, political, social, and religious fabric of America,” they do not consider slavery to be the sole cause of the war. Instead, they emphasize politics and economics as the major factors that led to the war. This does not mean that the issue of slavery is ignored. To the contrary, Thornton and Ekelund acknowledge that many economic interests were indeed “at least somewhat related to slavery.” But instead of the Civil War being about just slave holders and abolitionists, the authors see the war as a sectional conflict with a number of related parallels: free trade vs. protectionism, Jeffersonians vs. Hamiltonians, agrarian society vs. industrial society, states’ rights vs. strong central government. These dichotomies are all explored in the book along side of the misguided economic policies that both sides undertook to their detriment.
The strength of this book lies in its introductions. The introduction that precedes the four chapters that make up the book is especially crucial. Entitled “How Economics Illuminates the Civil War,” it imparts to the reader, with clear explanations, the basic economic principles necessary to begin the book on a firm economic footing. Those trained in economics will certainly feel right at home when they read of normal goods, inferior goods, rent seeking, agency problems, the free rider problem, price discrimination, mercantilism, elasticity of demand, and opportunity cost. But to the neophyte whose only introduction to economics might be this small book, there are also basic descriptions of supply and demand, shortages, inflation, wealth, tariffs, trade, money and banking, the division of labor, specialization, subsidies, and the gold standard. Each chapter also contains a brief introduction that not only introduces, but surveys, the contents of the chapter.
This is a book that actually makes good on its title, for tariffs, blockades, and inflation are indeed the focus of the three main chapters in the book. The tariff question in chapter one is really a study of the cultural differences between the North and South. The agrarian South, which relied heavily on imports of finished goods, saw high protective tariffs as a detriment to its economy. The authors argue that economic interests “were a major factor in the emergence of the conflict.” With no income tax, the tariff was the primary source of revenue for the federal government, but it was also means by which politically connected Northern businessmen sought to dampen foreign competition and enrich themselves. The agrarian economy of the South had always resisted high protective tariffs. This resistence was later enshrined in the new Confederate Constitution. In this chapter, Thornton and Ekelund review the antebellum tariff while explaining the economics of tariffs in general.
The Union blockade of the South is the focus of chapter two. The authors make the case that the most important battle that took place was that one at sea between the blockade runners and the blockading fleet. The blockade resulted in not only reduced production and trade, but hoarding and speculation. In addition to the economics of the blockade, Thornton and Ekelund discuss the effectiveness of the blockade and the peculiar effect of the blockade on the supply of “luxury” goods. This is not dry reading, for here we read of the Anaconda Plan, the “King Cotton” strategy, and the Rhett Butler Effect—not the terminology one usually finds in an economics book.
How both sides used inflation—the creation of new money—to finance the war and disguise its costs is explained in chapter three. Inflation hampers the ability of producers and consumers to make sound economic decisions by distorting capital values, prices, and wages. The authors relate how the South in particular resorted to the printing press to help disguise the cost of the war, devastating its economy. But in addition to illuminating the Civil War monetary policies of the Union and the Confederacy, this chapter also explores money and banking in the United States before the war, as well as its monetary legacy. The authors trace inflation and financial panics to the federal government intervening into banking, which had up until that time been primarily a state matter. The book by Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is shown to be an allegory to the growing monetary concerns of Populist movement of the late nineteenth.
[glow=red,2,300]Continued...[/glow]
