The South instituted King Cotton Diplomacy which consisted of the trying to create a cotton shortage by destroying millions of bales of cotton. Unfortunately, England had a cotton surplus and it took two years for it to kick in. When it did, the price of cotton jumped from ten cents a pound to close to two dollars a pound. Cotton shortages in the north lead to war profiteering with Union army officers confiscating and selling any cotton they could find. The South hoped to attract financial and military help from Europe and received 600,000 pieces of military equipment as well as the sloop-of-war CSS Alabama (which destroyed 65 Union vessels) from the UK even though there were cotton workers in England who refused to touch cotton picked by slaves. After the war, cotton production continued and by 1870 more cotton was produced than in 1860, with the US the largest producer of cotton until 1937.
