Revenue Imperative

The Revenue Imperative provides a comprehensive overview of the Union financial policies during the American Civil War. Flaherty argues that the revenue imperative, the need to keep pace with the burgeoning expenses of the conflict, governed the development of fiscal policy. Preserving the nation placed insurmountable strains on the antebellum structure of government, thus forcing a fundamental reorganization of the American financial system. Contingency, rather than a determined effort to implement an ideology or reward special interests, played the pivotal role in the development of the Republican response to financing the war. The Revenue Imperative closely examines the tariff and internal tax policies inaugurated during the Civil War. Flaherty argues that this new revenue system, more than any other aspect of the war financial policies, changed the relationship between the government and the economy in the post-Civil War era.