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How would that threaten the North?

My first thought was to explain it to you. Then I thought, "she doesn't really care and she won't remember it or acknowledge it even if you went to the bother. "

I could give you newspaper quotes from northern newspapers that would explain it to you, but you've probably seen them before, and don't remember them.

I could mention the threats northern port cities made to abolish federal tariffs if the southern states did so.

I could mention the lament that they could not possibly patrol the long porous border with the South.

I'm finally left with the idea that if you objectively understood what was being discussed, I wouldn't need to explain it to you.

The tariffs were unenforceable in the interior and along the Mississippi watershed. They only worked because of port city choke points.

The foreign products would be sold domestically by smugglers and the higher Union tariffs would not be paid on them.

And everyone in that era who dealt with trade knew this.

My first thought was to explain it to you.

There is no rational explanation for your fantasy.

I'm finally left with the idea that if you objectively understood what was being discussed, I wouldn't need to explain it to you.

If you objectively understood what you are proposing then no explanation would be needed because the premise is idiotic.

The tariffs were unenforceable in the interior and along the Mississippi watershed. They only worked because of port city choke points.

If the Confederacy was indeed an independent country then the choke points would be where the rivers crossed into U.S. territory. Not hard to establish customs houses at that point. We're only talking about a handful of border crossings.

The foreign products would be sold domestically by smugglers and the higher Union tariffs would not be paid on them.

Getting them over the border is the trick.

And everyone in that era who dealt with trade knew this.

Everyone then was as clueless as you seem to be?

I'm going to assume that Canada didn't charge tariffs on British goods and that there were probably some British goods smuggled across the Great Lakes (as well as some American goods going the other way).

This did not bring down the republic.

Smuggling is always a reality, but large quantities of goods would have to be broken down to be transported, and in those days, they'd be moving in boats or rafts or horse-drawn wagons.

That wouldn't bring down the Republic either.