Financial and commercial independence.
If the people of the
South intend to maintain the independence which they are so confident of securing at the point of the bayonet, they must prepare to assume a position of financial and commercial, as well as political independence.
We have everything within the limits of the
Confederate States which is necessary for the purpose of establishing direct trade with foreign countries.
We are confident our men have the requisite ability, energy and skill to conduct the trade, and, therefore, see no reason why, if proper measures are adopted, the
South may not, when the war is ended, turn into the pockets of its own people the immense profiles arising from foreign trade.
The productions of the States composing the
Confederate States have long formed the basis of credit and exchange between foreign countries and the
United States; yet, not with standing this, the producers are comparatively unknown in the commercial circles of the world.
The South has no credit established abroad, and unless some active efforts are made, it will probably be some years before that credit can be fixed upon a firm basis, and the confidence necessary for commercial transactions established.
The people of the
North have made a powerful effort to retain the profiles own hands, and to a great extent have succeeded.
The produce of the
South has been shipped to the
North; our imports have nearly all come through Northern ports; our bills of exchange have been drawn on Northern houses, and business of all kinds has been conducted not direct, as becomes an independent people, but through Northern factors.
All this must now be changed.
The South can no longer honorably consent to be dependent upon the
Northern for exports or imports.
All the requisites for a direct and profitable trade are at hand, and we hope to see good use made of them.
We notice with pleasure, therefore, that this subject is engorging the attention of business men of the leading cities of the
South.
The
Macon Chamber of Commerce invites the merchants, bankers, and others of the
Confederate States, to meet in mass convention in the city of
Macon, Georgia, on the 14th of October next, for the purpose of devising some plan for establishing a system of credits between the
Confederate States of America and foreign countries, which way be practicable and available to all desiring to use it, and which will also command the hearty support of the citizens of our whole country.--
Montgomery Advertiser. 
