Replies

You said: “You never asked what my example had to do with 1860 and the discussion was, in any case, about international trade and how transportation costs affected it.”

Correction. That was not the discussion point.

You said: “What I was attempting to do was to show that international trade BEGAN entirely limited to luxury items or at least items with very high prices relative to size and weight. Anyone who has ever studied International Economics knows this as basic stuff.’

You did not show that because the data on imports to the South showed no luxury item imports.

You said: “By 1860 transportation costs, thanks to the steam engine, had declined to the point that low value products: cotton, wheat etc., could be more profitably transported but luxury items were still a big part of international trade.”

Show your data to prove that point.

You said: “Imposition of tariffs skewed trade even more in the direction of luxuries since the additional tariff priced lower price items out of world trade.”

Your continuous mocking of reasoned discussion through the use of preposterous assertions and contrived logic is amusing.