https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3443027/posts?page=1045#1045
This made it possible to clear the sandbars without getting stuck. An added benefit was that now bales of cotton could fit more easily in the flat-floored hold and carrying capacity was greatly increased. At first, the sailing qualities of such a vessel was doubted, but soon, to the relief of their owners, these flat-bottomed ships proved to have fine sailing qualities. These were the ships used in the coastal trade. With these technical advancements, cotton was loaded onto the coastal packets, shipped to New York via these fast boats, offloaded to warehousing,and shipped out on the large V-bottomed ships that sailed the high seas to Liverpool.
This claim is patently false. According to records from the year prior to the rebellion, 248,049 bales of cotton were exported from New York City. That was about 8% of the 3.133 million bales exported in that year. By comparison 302,187 bales were exported from Savannah, 456,421 bales were exported from Mobile, 214,888 were exported from Charleston, and 1,783,678 bales were exported from New Orleans. Whatever the costal packets were bringing back from southern ports, very little of it was cotton.
If you really believe his family were big-time shippers, you are very gullible. The federal government dredged Charleston harbor in 1852. Federal funds paid for the dredging, not state or private funds. Federal funds still are paying for dredging the harbor. In the 19th century, federal government also dredged and removed snags from Southern rivers to make the Mississippi and Tennessee navigable.
The growers sold to factors. Then the product was out of their hands. It would be great if farmers and manufacturers could sell directly to the end-user and cut out all the transportation, warehousing, sales commissions, and other costs involved in getting their product to the end-user but that’s a bit of a fantasy. Then again your whole view of the antebellum South is a complete fantasy.