resources essential to their operations and allocated commodities to other departments within the government. The Nitre and Mining Bureau, for example, socialized mineral extraction and iron production by taking over mines and foundries or by so dominating their operations that outright confiscation was unnecessary. 183 The Subsistence and Quartermaster’s departments obtained exclusive purchasing rights in the domestic market through the power of impressment and thus became the sole agent in the allocation of cotton textile production. As the war continued, all agencies became increasingly dependent on running the naval blockade as the domestic economy, sundered by invasion and cavalry raids, failed. 184 The individual citizen was almost entirely