So Southern businesspeople were stupid is what you’re saying.
No I’m saying high tariffs will drive up your retail prices which will allow your competitors who do not have to pay those tariffs to undercut you on price.
Duh.
So then you’re saying they were stupid to engage in importing instead of other opportunities to reinvest their profits. Or not importing goods that were still competitive despite higher prices, like foreign luxury cars are today. By the way, I’m working on the research that’s going to disprove this whole contention that you and DiogenesLamp push on how importing and exporting was actually done, but it’s going to take a while. So you’ve got that to look forward to.