Replies

I have consistently agreed that between fifty and sixty five percent of exports were of Southern origins, subject to possible misinterpretation of origin as pointed out by other posters. What I am zeroing in on here is how the figures for EXPORTS somehow mean Southerners were paying for IMPORTS in the same percentage. You have made no such link.

You were the one who made the claim that exports and imports must balance, and that large trade deficits didn’t not exist in the antebellum era. The figures in this document disproves both notions.

I got these numbers from the chart. If you look at the aggregate figure for total trade deficit, found on the right hand side for 1860, the number is $379.2 million dollars. That is $10.5 billion in today’s dollars. Dividing that figure of $379.2 million by forty years is $9,450,000 per year, or $242.44 million in today’s dollars.

Last year we had a trade deficit of about $568.4 billion with a population of 330 million, or about $17.2 million per person. In 1859 the trade deficit was $26.2 million with a population of about 30 million, or about $877,333 per person. This is the equivalent of about $24.2 million per person today.

How are you going to deny that these numbers clearly refute all your earlier claims? How are you going to spin the fact that there was no balance of imports and exports to sustain your claim that Southerners paid the bulk of the tariffs prior to the Civil War?

Dividing that figure of $379.2 million by forty years is $9,450,000 per year

Which is what percentage of the total trade? The only thing I asked you to do, you didn't do.

Add up all the numbers for "exports" on page 34, and then tell me what percentage of that total trade value is your 379 million.

If you are going to say we had a 379 million dollar deficit for 40 years, you are going to have to assert what percentage of the total trade this constitutes.

When all is said and done, I believe you will find it comes out to less than 10% of the total trade, which means my point about import and export values being approximately equal holds true.

You are trying to use a deceitful tactic of comparing 40 years worth of deficits without comparing it to 40 years worth of trade.

I have consistently agreed that between fifty and sixty five percent of exports were of Southern origins,

Okay, 65 % is the highest number i've seen from you so far. 73% is only another 8%, and perhaps you will get there eventually. Then we'll work on getting you to the 84% that other people claim was the true value of the South's exports.