After the American Civil War, many prominent Southerners lamented the fact that the South "overproduced" cotton and "underproduced" food.In fact, the South did import a very large percentage of its food.Nevertheless, rather than reduce cotton production and grow more food, Southern farmers did the opposite because

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The concept of comparative advantage suggests that a region or country should specialize in producing the goods for which it has the lowest opportunity cost, meaning the goods that it can produce with the lowest amount of given resources. The South had a comparative advantage in cotton production, so it made sense for Southern farmers to continue producing cotton rather than diverting resources to growing food. Additionally, the demand for cotton was still high after the war, providing economic incentive to continue producing it.

After the American Civil War, Many Prominent Southerners Lamented the Fact