Beyond the Capacity of Any Man: Christopher Gustavus Memminger and the Financial Programs of the Confederate States of America

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to argue that the scope and talent needed to pursue an effective financial policy within the Confederacy was beyond the capacity of any man. This study also provides a partial defense of Secretary of the Treasury Christopher Gustavus Memminger. Primary source research was largely dependent on Christopher Gustavus Memminger's government documents. The secondary material follows the works of J.C. Schwab The Confederate States of America (1901), Richard Cecil Todd Confederate Finance (1954), and Douglas B. Ball Financial Failure and Confederate Defeat (1991). The Confederacy�s economic structure was too primitive for a sophisticated financial policy. A lack of paper and complex financial machinery saw economic programs move slowly. A small number of wealthy planters held disproportionate influence in southern economic affairs. Southern economic isolation engendered by the Union blockade disrupted the cotton market. Southerners rigorously opposed taxation that was essential to providing a legitimate source of revenue to meet interest payments. Taxes made up just 4 percent of the Confederacy�s total revenue. Memminger�s financial wisdom was constantly at odds with southern states � rights, agrarian political ideology. Moreover, Memminger�s early financial schemes toed the party line, and radiated the same optimistic expectations as the rest of Congress. Though Memminger fought hard to establish heavy taxes in 1863, it was too late.