=454. Comparative Numerical Strength.=—As we have seen (§ 447), the population of the seceded states was a little less than nine millions, of whom about five and one-half millions were whites; while the population of the other states was about twenty-two millions. At the beginning of the war a large proportion of the white adult males in the South was brought into action through public opinion, and a little later, a rigid conscription law, including all able-bodied men between fifteen and fifty, was rigorously enforced. Old men, women, boys, and slaves were left at home to furnish the necessary supplies. Thus the South put forth almost its entire strength early in the war, and the capture of territory and prisoners continually lessened its resources; while the very opposite was the case with the North. While the war was going on, the productive industries of the Union states never flagged, and the population continued to increase so that it was possible to have a larger army at the end of the war than at the beginning. However, all figures comparing the armies and the numbers present in individual battles are somewhat misleading, from the fact that in the Southern army teamsters and laborers on the supply trains were generally slaves, not enumerated. Slaves were also employed in the trenches. In the Northern armies, on the other hand, these forms of service were generally rendered by enlisted men. =455. Comparative Industries.=—The South was essentially an agricultural region, depending for its income chiefly upon its exports of cotton and tobacco. If a blockade could be stringently enforced, this source of revenue must necessarily be cut off. But that was not all. The supplies which the South had been in the habit of importing could not now be procured except at enormous prices and in very small quantities. A few facts will show the significance of this condition. In 1860, the exports of cotton amounted in value to about two hundred millions of dollars, but before the end of the war, the annual income from that source was not more than four million dollars. The inducement to run the blockade may be inferred from the fact that the best cotton could be bought in Charleston at four or five cents a pound, while in Liverpool, where the American supply had been cut off, the price per pound was no less than two dollars and a half. Prospect of profit led to the most daring risks. Insurance on blockade running vessels rose nearly a thousand per cent, and the wages of sea captains plying between Nassau and Southern ports increased from thirty to one thousand pounds sterling per month. As we shall hereafter see, prices rose enormously in the South, and the suffering on the part of many became almost intolerable. This condition of affairs might have been prevented, if the South before the war had given itself to the development of varied industries. But, with all the able-bodied men in the field, the sudden establishment of