USA HISTORY

The economy of the South was heavily based on which type of economy?

(A) ** Agriculture

(B) Industry

(C) Fishing

(D) Trade

Concept note-1: -In 1860, the South was still predominantly agricultural, highly dependent upon the sale of staples to a world market. By 1815, cotton was the most valuable export in the United States; by 1840, it was worth more than all other exports combined.

Concept note-2: -The Confederate States of America (1861–1865) started with an agrarian-based economy that relied heavily on slave-worked plantations for the production of cotton for export to Europe and to the northern US.

Concept note-3: -The main economic activity in the Southern colonies were cash crops like tobacco, rice, and indigo. The economic development of southern colonies resulted in the reliance of those economies on slavery and the slave trade.

Concept note-4: -By the early 1800s, cotton emerged as the South’s major cash crop-a good produced for commercial value instead of for use by the owner. Cotton quickly eclipsed tobacco, rice, and sugar in economic importance.