“Profit.” 40-50% greater profit.”
If you’re referring to tariffs, they had been lowered a few years before the Fire Eaters bugged out and let the tariff of 1861 pass.
As I mentioned to "x", "tariffs" are an imprecise word for the large effect of economic change which would have occurred as a consequence of independence.
Firstly, 65 million or so a year would not be going into Northern pockets, and would instead be going into Southern pockets.
Secondly, the tariff of abominations went up, and then it went down, so there was no certainty about where tariffs would end up without secession. With secession they would certainly be much lower than they would otherwise be.
Thirdly, the other economic effects of secession would have resulted in even more money leaving the North and ending up in the South. European products bought at cheaper prices would not only have displaced Northern products in the same southern and midwestern markets, they would have left more money in the pockets of consumers because they would have been bought at cheaper prices than what consumers had previously paid.
Chicago Daily Times. December 10, 1860“In one single blow our foreign commerce must be reduced to less than one-half what it now is. Our coastwise trade would pass into other hands. One-half of our shipping would lie idle at our wharves. We should lose our trade with the South, with all of its immense profits. Our manufactories would be in utter ruins. Let the South adopt the free-trade system or that of a tariff for revenue and these results would likely follow.”