gs, had all to be bought abroad. To
establish the foreign credit of the new Government was the arduous task
of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, Christopher G. Memminger.
The first great campaign of the war was not fought by armies. It was
a commercial campaign fought by agents of the Federal and Confederate
governments and having for its aim the cornering of the munitions market
in Europe. In this campaign the Federal agents had decisive advantages:
their credit was never questioned, and their enormous purchases were
never doubtful ventures for the European sellers. In some cases their
superior credit enabled them to overbid the Confederate agents and to
appropriate large contracts which the Confederates had negotiated but
which they could not hold because of the precariousness of their credit.
And yet, all things considered, the Confederate agents made a good
showing. In the report of the Secretary of War in February, 1862, the
number of rifles contracted for abroad was put at 91,000, of which
15,000 had been delivered. The chief reliance of the Confederate
Treasury for its purchases abroad was at first the specie in the
Southern branch of the United States Mint and in Southern banks. The
former the Confederacy seized and converted to its own use. Of the
latter it lured into its own hands a very large proportion by what is
commonly called "the fifteen million loan"--an issue of eight percent
bonds authorized in February, 1861. Most of this specie seems to have
been taken out of the country by the purchase of European commodities. A
little, to be sure, remained, for there was some gold still at home when
the Confederacy fell. But the sum was small.

In addition to this loan Memminger also persuaded Congress on August 19,
1861, to lay a direct tax--the "war tax," as it was called--of one-half
of one per cent on all property except Confederate bonds and money. As
required by the Constitution this tax was apportioned among the States,
but if it assumed its assessment before April 1, 1862, each State was to
have a reduction of ten per cent. As there was a general aversion to
the idea of Confederate taxation and a general faith in loans, what the
States did, as a rule, was to assume their assessment, agree to pay it
into the Treasury, and then issue bonds to raise the necessary funds,
thus converting the war tax into a loan.

The Confederate, like the Union, Treasury did not have the courage to
force the issue upo