Just how plausible is the United States economic situation in Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee?

[Art]

We are told in the beginning of Bring the Jubilee that the C. S. A. took from the United States Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Kansas and California, and part of Nevada. The C. S. A. also forced the U. S. to pay reparations in gold. I don't consider that the C. S. A. could force the United States to make such concessions, just because they won the battle of Gettysburg.

 

[Jack Brisco]

We are told in the beginning of Bring the Jubilee that the C. S. A. took from the United States Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Kansas and California, and part of Nevada. The C. S. A. also forced the U. S. to pay reparations in gold. I don't consider that the C. S. A. could force the United States to make such concessions, just because they won the battle of Gettysburg.

Agree. Best I could see is the CSA being allowed to stay in the original form, USA maybe to pay some reparations.

 

[Marius Mazzini]

Reparations are plausible, especially if Confederate independence was backed up by foreign powers such as Britain and France. What's *not* plausible is the US economy becoming permanently crippled by reparations (see France IOTL after the Franco-Prussian War) or it degenerating into a neo-feudal economic structure where indentured servitude is brought back.