The South was not even innovative in the sectors in which
it specialized: from 1837 to 1859, the numbers of patents
issued per year for innovations related to corn and wheat
were on average twelve and ten, respectively; there was
just one per year for the most important crop of the South,
cotton. There was no indication that industrialization and
economic growth would commence anytime soon. But
defeat in the Civil War was followed by fundamental
economic and political reform at bayonet point. Slavery
was abolished, and black men were allowed to vote.
These major changes should have opened the way for a