Alan my Friend, You are never out of line in my opinion. Let me see if I can respond to your teaching.
"I'm guessing that you were discussing some aspect of the American System advocated by Henry Clay and the antebellum whigs, of which Lincoln was one. Before the war, Northern Whigs and the Republicans who succeeded them had been frustrated in their designs by Andrew Jackson and Southern Democrats. During and afterwards they were able to reshape the Constitution and the government according to Clay's prescription. In another post I mentioned Pat Buchanan as being the last American presidential candidate to advocate guidelines of the American System which Southerners fought successfully until the Civil War."

I must confess that I don't know anything about Mr. Clay's System. What does that have to do with your question about the economy of the States in Rebellion during that period?
"1) Industrial capacity in the antebellum South was notoriously limited. We can accept your point if you're suggesting that the little which existed had largely been destroyed, but that cannot have affected conditions to any noticeable extent.
2) I'm not an economist, but inflation seems to be a product of a failing market system rather than the cause. Wherever finished goods or services are difficult to acquire, the laws of supply and demand will place a high price on them in comparison to other markets in which they are readily available.
3) When the war ended, most banks in the South had failed and you could look in vain for cash or coin in the purse of a decent Southerner. Anyone who happened to have money was going to hold on it. Any venture capital investment would have to come from outside the region.
4) Postwar visitors from the North expressed surprise at the crowds of idle people in the streets of Southern cities. Duh! Since few natives had any ability to pay for labor of any kind, people were without work. Of course Northern investors quickly took advantage of ridiculously cheap labor in the South. To this day wages paid in this region are still below national scale.
5) Thousands of farmers who once owned their own property lost title to much of it during Reconstruction. Tenants on their own land, they became prisoners of the sharecropping system which kept people in perpetual indebtedness."

1- I was not talking about industrial capacity after the war. I was referring to capacity before and during the war. The south had to buy or capture much of their war making material. When the war first started they had the proceeds of Federal money in Southern Banks to use but when that ran out they had a hard time since the Confederate dollar had no backing and they could not buy all that they needed in Europe.
2-Once again due to the fact that there was nothing to back up the Confederate currency inflation bacame rampant. As I said those who had it did not buy the bonds to support the government.
3- Bank failures go back to the same problem in my opinion.
4- Low wages result to a depressed economy a you know. That is why we see so many coming across our southern borders. When there is not much work you will work for what you can get. A quick nickle is better than that slow dime.
5- I don't doubt that many lost their land. I feel sorry for the poor dirt farmers who got caught up in that mess. Many large farmers (former slave owners) could not make it when they had to pay someone to work instead of getting all that free labor that they had before. They had to put that Mint Julip up and do it themselves and I would guess that many could not. Just my opinion.
Running out of time here so I will have to take up where I left off tommorow. Have a great evening.
Frank