The South (Confederacy's) economy was dependent on being able to trade and sell their cotton for money (as their most produced crops are cotton & tobacco.) Also, the South's infrastructure & factories were not built up, and they did not have the economic nor the population superiority as of the North. This led to not only the blockade, but the South's inability to deal with the blockade in a large scale. While the South tried to get smugglers and blockade runners to help them trade, they were not able to bring cotton out in a large scale, and it soon led to the destruction of the South's economy.
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