The Confederates Gamble on Cotton Diplomacy

[Hawk1981]

When the Confederate States declared their independence in 1861, and faced war with the Union, they hoped to coerce Great Britain and France into recognizing the new nation and supporting the Confederate war effort. Since the economies of Britain and France were heavily dependent on southern cotton for textile manufacturing, the South hoped to force an intervention by the European powers by restricting the flow of cotton through an embargo.

Prior to the Civil War cotton produced by the southern states held a predominant position in the economies of the US and in the world. In the 1850s cotton exports were over 55% of all US exports, and the South provided 75% of the world's supply of cotton. Nearly 80% of the cotton consumed by British factories, and 90% of the cotton produced by France was produced by the American South. In 1853, it was estimated that 20% of Britain's workforce was tied directly or indirectly to the textile industry.

Political leaders in the South advanced a theory that control over cotton exports could make a proposed independent southern Confederacy economically prosperous. The Union would be forced to grant the southern states independence due to the threat of economic ruin for the New England textile industry and the European countries would recognize the Confederacy because of the dependence of their economies on cotton. The "King Cotton" argument was a powerful factor in mobilizing support for secession in the cotton producing states.

These bellicose lines from a speech given by Senator James Hammond of South Carolina in 1858 summarized the "King Cotton" theory. "Without firing a gun, without drawing a sword, should they make war on us, we could bring the whole world to our feet. What would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? England would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized world with her save the South. No, you dare not make war on cotton. No power on the earth dares to make war on it. Cotton is king."

When Confederate President Jefferson Davis took office he immediately leveraged the "King Cotton" strategy by cautioning the North that obstructing cotton's "transmission to foreign markets would be detrimental to manufacturing and commercial markets abroad." When the Union government responded with force, individual southern state governments and private citizens voluntarily refused to allow the export of cotton. Honoring state's rights, the Confederate government never formally approved an embargo. New Orleans forbade any cotton from the 1861 harvest to be brought in and burned the stocks that were on hand rather than ship it out. Prominent South Carolinian Edmund Rhett told the London Times that "you British must recognize us by the end of October [1861] because of cotton requirements."

With the imposition of a Union blockade on southern ports reinforcing the self-embargo on cotton, exports of cotton were reduced by 95%. Prices soared from ten cents to nearly two dollars a pound. The Confederate's strategy showed promise in the short run when manufacturers and merchants in both Britain and France urged their governments to recognize the Confederacy and restore the pipeline for cotton.

Ironically, the cotton embargo failed to bring recognition from Britain and France, in part, because of the enormous harvests from the prior two years that had been shipped and stockpiled by textile manufacturers taking advantage of the lower prices from the cotton glut prior to the outbreak of the war. The sudden increase in value of the stockpiled cotton preserved and even increased the profits of the European cotton interests. Producers, able to draw from their reserves, did not feel the effects of the cotton blockade/embargo until late in 1862.

 

[Hawk1981]

The South's gamble on European dependence on cotton underestimated the reluctance by Britain and France to intervene on their behalf. Concerned about their own interests in the America's and the rapid increase in strength of the US military, the European powers elected to wait and see how the American war developed. By late 1862 when cotton supplies in Europe dwindled to a critical level, the Union forces were successfully repelling an invasion by a Confederate army in a turn of fortune for the North, and the war was being converted to a struggle against slavery which was a popular cause in Europe.

European cotton interests were also developing alternate sources for raw cotton from India, Egypt and Argentina. While never completely making up for the loss of cotton from the American South, the new supplies mitigated the recession in the European textile industries and the other industries were resilient enough to preserve the British and French economies.

In the end, the delusions of the "King Cotton" theory and the extended Cotton Diplomacy strategy failed to achieve the goals desired by the Confederacy and likely misled many adherents into an unwinnable war.

 

[Hawk1981]

The drop in supply of cotton during the Civil War had a severe economic impact to New York and New England. The production of cotton and the textile industry in the United States had brought commercial ascendency to New York City.

Cotton had fed the textile revolution in the US, and New England was the manufacturing center of that revolution. In 1860, New England had 52 percent of the manufacturing establishments and 75 percent of the 5.14 million spindles in operation. The same goes for looms, Massachusetts alone had 30 percent of all spindles, and Rhode Island another 18 percent. Most impressively of all, New England mills consumed 283.7 million pounds of cotton, or 67 percent of the 422.6 million pounds of cotton used by U.S. mills in 1860. On the eve of the Civil War New England’s economy was fundamentally dependent on the textile industry and the production of cotton.

 

[Blackrook]

The stupidity of people is a mighty force that should never be underestimated.

 

[Unkotare]

One of many stupid decisions by the fucking traitorous rebels.

 

[whitehall]

There are accounts of New England whaling ships (all of them?) converted to slave ships when the whales got scarce. The dirty little secret is that the New England industrial might depended on southern cotton. New England politicians depended on the slave trade and Lincoln was equally clueless about the political implications of a civil war.