rdfx,
I don't think the north would go bankrupt with out the taxes due from the south. I think the industrial might of the north would have served them just fine during the late uppleasantness. The north had the manufacturing ability as well as the man power to meet their needs for that period. It was the south during that period that had the problems in my opinion. The had foolishly placed all their "eggs in one basket" so to speak when they invested all their resources in slaves. The north was able to sell their output abroad. Even tho the south was able to run the blockade with not much effort, who would want to buy slaves? At the beginning they had the gold that they took from the Federals in the southern banks but once that run out, Europe did not trade with them. The rebel leaders were hard pressed to meet the basic needs of the southern people. Now on the other hand the people who had the resourses in the south, the planters and slave owners had plenty but they did not share it. They could have planted food on their ground but choose to plant cotton and tobbacco instead and the only food they planted was what they needed for their own use and the use of their slaves. Three fourths of the blockade runners made it through to Cuba and the Caribean as well as to Bermuda to sell their cotton and tobbacco and to have coffee and fine wines and other niceties that the privileged class wanted but they never bothered to grow or buy food or materials of war for the rebel cause. There in my opinion was the problem and it was not a northern problem but one for the south.
FC