Tariffs were collected at over 50 different locations. According to Federal Law, the payments could be delayed up to three years. That would allow an importer/broker time to transport the goods to the buyer, collect the money, and pay the tariff.
So goods entering in New York might be paid much later after a buyer in another part of the country paid.
The US Treasury tariff data due to these rules is not a reliable data point for determining who actually paid the tariff.
Not necessarily. All one has to do is look at tariff collections for FY1863. Tariff collections were over $102 million dollars, for a year without cotton exports and without Southerners consuming all those vast quantities of imported goods. How was that possible?
The entire overseas trade changed drastically in 1861. With no more cotton for northern mills, they began to import from China and India. Lincoln instituted expanded tariffs which included these goods.
Also massive food amounts formerly imported from the South stopped. Food was now imported.
All sorts of war material was now being imported. Keep in mind that the government did not manufacture arms, and importers paid large tariffs.
The most important issue in all this is hidden. At the time of secession, there was not nearly enough specie on deposit in the Treasury or banks to maintain trade. Had it not been for war, the government would not have been able to finance much. Instead, once Europe saw that Lincoln was going to seize Southern assets, the lending began.
And that was the reason that Lincoln sent the Navy to Charleston.
This is interesting. I'd like to know more. From what I've read the northern states fed itself and there were no significant imports of foodstuffs.
True. But that was meant to apply for goods which were landed and were destined for overseas consumers. If, for example, goods from London were purchased by a merchant who planned on sending them to a consumer in Cuba then they could be stored in a bonded warehouse for up to three years and no tariffs were owed. When those goods were taken from the warehouse and put on a ship for Havana then they left duty free. If they were taken out and sold for domestic use then tariffs were owed. I believe this was called the Warehouse Law or Warehouse Act.
So goods entering in New York might be paid much later after a buyer in another part of the country paid.
I don't see how that could have made up a large part of the business. I also am not familiar enough with the law to know that if the goods left the warehouse and were put on a ship for Charleston then would the tariff be paid in New York or South Carolina?
The US Treasury tariff data due to these rules is not a reliable data point for determining who actually paid the tariff.
But again, and I'm sorry but I don't think you adequately explained in in your other posts, if all those goods were destined for Southern consumers then why didn't they go to Southern ports? Why were there virtually no packet lines between Europe and the South? It makes no sense to send your goods to a port hundreds of miles away from your consumers if the vast majority is destined for Southern consumers anyway.
The entire overseas trade changed drastically in 1861. With no more cotton for northern mills, they began to import from China and India. Lincoln instituted expanded tariffs which included these goods.
But at that time the U.S. did not have the Southern consumers with their ravenous demand for imports. And tariffs are designed to discourage imports and not increase them.
Also massive food amounts formerly imported from the South stopped. Food was now imported.
What food was imported in massive quantities?
All sorts of war material was now being imported. Keep in mind that the government did not manufacture arms, and importers paid large tariffs.
I find it impossible to believe that the government would levy taxes on the very goods it needed to fight the war.
At the time of secession, there was not nearly enough specie on deposit in the Treasury or banks to maintain trade. Had it not been for war, the government would not have been able to finance much. Instead, once Europe saw that Lincoln was going to seize Southern assets, the lending began.
Do you have a source where I can read up more on this European lending?