After complaining that my question did not make sense, you actually answered it correctly.
The point of the question was to establish the difference between point of entrance into the US and point of consumption.
Sometimes the importer paid the tariff on entrance into New York....sometimes he did not. The federal rules allowed the importer to wait up to three years to pay.
And as you also correctly pointed out, the tariff amount was passed on down the line to the end consumer as part of the product cost.
Let it finally be said that data on tariff collection by the Treasury only shows where the money was collected on imports, and not where the eventual consumer resided.
But only if the goods were stored in a bonded warehouse. What logic is there to paying for a good in 2015 and not selling it until 2018?
Let it finally be said that data on tariff collection by the Treasury only shows where the money was collected on imports, and not where the eventual consumer resided.
But point of entry is a good indicator where demand lies. If 75% of all imports were consumed by Southerners then sending them to New York, landing them, paying the tariff, and then loading them on ships again so send them south does not make any sense at all. One would expect the goods to be sent to an entry point closest to where their largest number of customers are. So tariff collections are a very accurate indicator was to whether the majority of imports were consumed in the north or in the south.