The North and the South were completely different in terms of what made up there economy. In the north there were factories, in the south there were plantations. Although the two things were vastly different one could not survive without the other. But the fundamental base of both the plantations and the factories were built on the backs of the poor. Whether it be slaves or factory workers they could not survive without them. Both the North and South were different with what made up there economy however both needed the poor to work in horrible conditions for little or no pay.

In the North the first factory was built in Lowell, Massachusetts in the early 1800s. The entire production system was under one roof which was quicker and more efficient way of working. However having lots of workers in one place wasn’t safe at all the workers of the factories faced long hours and only Sundays off. On top of that the machinery was deadly many people died from getting there arm, hair, or cloths stuck in the machine. This was a major problem because less people wanted to join if they knew they wouldn’t get paid much and faced these dangers. Also if more then one mill were built to close together there would not be enough power to turn the water wheel. With no water wheel there was no power to work with. After awhile the workers at the mill had enough and went on strikes refusing to work for higher wages or for less work hours. In 1842 a Massachusetts court ruled it to be legal to strike. For the economy however this was horrible paying better wages meant higher prices.

The main source of money in the south was from crops, mostly cotton. However were most of the cotton was coming from was plantations which had large amounts of slaves. The slaves weren’t paid and were treated horrible. They had long hours and could not learn to read or write, on top of that there family could be sold at any time and you probably would never see them again. The south was so reliant on slaves that they could not live without them. This was bad for the economy in the long run because if anything happened to slaves there entire economy would be destroyed. Since cotton was so important there wasn’t that much industry in the south. Without capital they could not develop new business and manufactured goods were in less demand in the south. However if they did have southern manufactures they could ship cloths rather then cloth to the north and have much more money. The final thing that the south had problems with was transportation they only had natural waterways and a few canals a as well as some poor roads. These are some economic problems of the south

There were several problems with the north and south’s economy. For the north I think there main problem was with the workers. Not only did the problem of there workers dieing they had to deal with but also there workers going on strike. In the south I think the main problem is that they were totally reliant on slaves if the slaves revolted or laws were passed to free them the south’s economy would crash horrible. That is what I think were the main problems with the north and south’s economy.