Price Controls

[atlantis]

For a brief time the provost marshal for Richmond imposed price controls. Was any consideration given to imposing price controls across the confederacy to end speculation on food stuffs and cord wood . There was food available but it was unaffordable for increasing numbers of people.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT, No. 4. Little Rock, Ark., June 2, 1862.

I. All person within this district are hereby required to take Confederate notes as currency at par in all business transactions.

II. The following tariff of prices is hereby established throughout this district for the articles specified:

Flour.............................per hundred.......$8 00
Bacon............................. Per pound.......... 25
Beef...................................do............ 10
Corn..................................per bushel..... 75
Corn meal..................................do........1 00
Chickens..................................per dozen..4 40
Butter.....................................per pound 20
Eggs......................................per dozen. 15
Potatoes.................................per bushel..1 00
Hay any fodder........................per hundred....1 50
Lard....................................per pound... 20
Pork.........................................do..... 15
Turkeys.....................................each.... 1 00
Salt....................................per sack....15 00
Sole leather............................per pound... 50
Upper leather...............................do...... 80
Harness leather.............................do...... 75
Molasses.................................per gallon. 40
Sugar....................................per pound.. 10
Quinine.................................per ounce...10 00
Calomel.....................................do...... 50
Morphine....................................do......15 00
Castor oil..............................per gallon.. 5 00
Ipecac..................................per pound... 8 00
Opium...................................per ounce... 2 00
Tartar emetic.................................do.... 25
Blistering ointment.....................per pound... 8 00
Epsom salts.................................do...... 60
Soda........................................do..... 50
Rhubarb..................................per ounce.. 50
Cream of tartar...........................per pound.. 2 00
Turpentine..............................per gallon.. 2 50
Dover's powders.........................per ounce... 75

III. Every person violating paragraph I of this order, and every person having for sale any article specified in paragraph II, and demanding or receiving for the same any higher price than that established therefor, or refusing to sell the same for such price, must be arrested and sent to these headquarters, to be dealt with as such inhuman and disloyal conduct may deserve. Proof of the fact, in the form of affidavits, before any State officer authorized by law to administer an oath must be sent with the prisoner.

IV. All Confederate officers and soldiers are hereby instructed, and State officers and loyal citizens are authorized and requested,to execute this order promptly and without respect to persons in every case of its violation.

By order of Major-General Hindman:
R. C. NEWTON,
Assistant Adjutant-General

O.R. Series I, Vol. XV, pg. 782

 

[lurid]

It didn't work or it didn't last long because hyperinflation came rather quickly, which means prices were totally out-of-control. Price control was out the window soon in Confederate controlled states.

 

[lurid]

According to the chart, by January 1862 hyperinflation kicked in. For those who don't understand this stuff the huge peaks and troughs should be disregarded to an extent, and understand the Confederacy had hyperinflation from January 1862 to the war end.

 

[UCVRelics]

In the late part of the CW, inflation was out of control in part due to the flooding of the South with counterfeit CS money by the North.

 

[lurid]

In the late part of the CW, inflation was out of control in part due to the flooding of the South with counterfeit CS money by the North.

You don't know how to read that chart, do you? I specifically asked people in post #3 to disregard peaks because they would misunderstand it, which you did anyway. Hyperinflation starts at 45-50% of inflation for more than a month. According to the chart, from January 1862 to the wars end the Confederacy had 45% or higher inflation. The high peaks in 1863(475%) and 1865(5,700) had to do with Confederacy losses at Gettysburg and Appomattox. It had nothing to do with flooding and very little with counterfeit money.


The Confederacy under Christopher Memminger printed too much money and devalued their currency. Economics 101: too much money chasing too few of goods= inflation. The Confederacy didn't have a commodity to back their currency, they couldn't sell cotton because of the blockade. Yeah that's it, blame the north for the Confederacy's incompetence. You all need some new material: all this blame shifting has become tiresome.

 

[JOHN42768]

I would contribute the serious inflation to "Supply and Demand" as in any war zone. Might want to throw in unscrupulous greed as a bonus.

 

[UCVRelics]

You don't know how to read that chart, do you?

No I don't as I'm just an dumb old Southern country boy and can't even spell chrt, but I do know the North flooded the South with bogus money which did cause part of the problem.