(11-07-2018, 11:17 PM)Predator Wrote:

(11-07-2018, 10:10 PM)mikesez Wrote: Why didn't the South just set up its own textile factories?

Because they didn't have the infrastructure to make that feasible, and the tariff money they were most responsible for paying was being used to build that infrastructure in the north for northern interests.

Fast forward 50 years when the infrastructure is finally in place, the efficiency of textile mills being in the south ran the northern mills out of business.

The tariffs weren't being used for the good of the nation, they were being used for regional self interest. If national interest were at heart, then the infrastructure and investment would have happened in the south where non slave labor was cheapest and raw material was abundant easily accessible. It was these very qualities that in later years allowed the south to dominate the global textile market.

But it was sectionalism and northern greed that prevented the south from developing a viable economy that wasn't so dependent on slavery. If these steps had been taken in the years preceding the war, it would have given the south a viable out from a fading institution. Unfortunately, this didn't happen and the south was stuck with the choice of slavery or economic destitution.

We now have 600k deaths to remind us of what happens when sectional interests are put ahead of whats most beneficial for the nation.