| "Increasingly different, but equally successful." How far do you agree with these judgements on the economies of the North and South of the USA in the period to 1850.
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| While it is true that the period to 1850 saw the Northern and Southern economies become increasingly different, the Northern economy was far more successful than the Southern economy. The North’s economy saw higher productivity, more trade—in large part due to its greater export market—and was much more resilient to economic turmoil—both in general and, in particular, that of which affects a specific industry—due to its diversity in manufacturing output. The North also had a larger, more educated population, giving it an overall greater economic size.
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| The Southern economy was largely agricultural, something which was consistent throughout the period to 1850. The early Southern economy was more diverse in the type of agricultural exports produced: tobacco, rice, and indigo all contributed a large share to the total exports of the early Southern economy. However, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793 saw cotton explode in its share of Southern exports, overtaking every other export. By 1850, cotton accounted for almost half of all Southern exports. The North, however, became increasingly diverse as time went on. Abolitionist movements in the North, which were largely successful at the state level, forced the Northern economy to diversify further and accelerated the transition away from raw, agricultural exports to manufactured, processed goods. This transition oversaw a rapid increase in Northern productivity: the North now not only had a larger population, but the average worker in the North had a greater economic output compared to the South.
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| While the North’s economic transition made it less dependent on global exports, the South became increasingly dependent on them. By 1850, the majority of Northern goods were sold domestically. The South, however, became the world’s cotton supplier: by 1850, approximately 75% of the world’s cotton supply was provided by the South. This, however, combined with the social hierarchy imposed by slavery, further disincentivized any attempts to diversify the Southern economy. Cotton was susceptible to natural disasters: the 1846 cotton worm outbreak significantly weakened the southern economy. The second largest Southern export, tobacco, was also dependent on the vagaries of agriculture. This significantly undermined the resilience of the Southern economy. Natural disasters or decreased demand affecting a small selection of crops was enough to wreak economic havoc.
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| The South was also significantly less educated in comparison to the North. In attempts to dehumanize and control the slave population, many Southern states passed legislation prohibiting the teaching of literacy to slaves and sometimes even to free coloured people. This further reduced the resilience of the Southern economy by increasing its dependence on slavery, a practice of which was already under significant social and political pressure from the North: an influx of large, unskilled workers often undermines an economy in the short to medium terms. Conversely, the North was fairly progressive: literacy rates were higher and education was closer in reach for poorer parts of the population.
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| A factoid often raised to the effect of undermining the supposed resiliency of the Northern economy is the common misconception that the Northern economy was somehow dependent on the South’s agricultural output. This is largely untrue: half of the US’ corn and the majority of its wheat and oats were produced by Northern farmers. While a substantial portion—though not the majority—of the Northern industrial might was dependent on Southern cotton, hindsight allows us to see that Southern cotton was quickly replaced by Egyptian, Indian, and Brazilian cotton. If anything, the war economy that developed during the Civil War further establishes Northern economic resiliency: the South bore the brunt of the economic pain during the Civil War, largely due to the Northern blockade.
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