The Confederate States of America started with an agrarian-based economy that relied sattes on slave -worked plantations for the production of cotton for export to Europe and to the northern US. If classed as an independent nation, the area of the Confederate States would have ranked as the fourth-richest country of the world in After losing control of its main rivers and ports, the Confederacy had to depend on a weak railroad system that, with few repairs being made, no new hlw, and destructive federal raids, crumbled away. The financial teh collapsed during the war as inflation destroyed banks and forced a move toward a barter economy for civilians. The government seized needed supplies and livestock paying with certificates that were to be paid off after the war, but never. By the Confederate economy was in ruins. The main prewar agricultural products of the Confederate States were cottontobaccoand sugarcanewith hogs, cattlegrain and vegetable plots.