Southern merchants sold raw material in Europe, presumably because the Northern markets couldn’t absorb it all, got money, bought finished goods, took finished goods back to US, used them or sold them, at a profit diminished by tariffs.
The map doesn’t show who was landing finished goods in NYC, how much by Northern merchants or Southern merchants. I would assume there was a demand for European goods in the North beyond what was transported by Southern merchants.
For some reason the South didn’t take the profits and hire engineers, start industry, move away from a purely agrarian economy.
The exporters WERE the importers. Read the various newspaper editorials I posted. Focus especially on the Northern ones where they admit the South is responsible for somewhere between 72% and 75% of all the exports and imports. That's the percentage of the tariff paid by Southerners.
For some reason the South didn’t take the profits and hire engineers, start industry, move away from a purely agrarian economy.
When you have a highly profitable product or products, that tends to draw in the most investment. They were starting to industrialize. The Upper South (Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee) had much higher percentages of Blacks who were freedmen (for example 50% in Maryland, 25% in Virginia) and the number of people who owned slaves was declining. This is the same process that saw slavery steadily die out in the Northern states.
But you very much need to understand that the North could only pay for 28% of the total value. They could buy no more without taking money away from the South. (Which they did.)
Some years back I read an excerpt from what I believe was the Charleston Mercury detailing the massive economic boom that was occurring just after South Carolina declared Independence from the Union.
FLT-Bird, I see that you have articles from various newspapers at the ready, but would you recall this excerpt I mentioned or similar such?
Charleston was booming massively just after secession. All hotels were filled, construction workers were building new warehouses, the docks were being upgraded and additional docks were being built.
Northern craftsmen had moved into Charleston and industries were starting up.
To address heartwoods' point, Charleston was hiring engineers and starting industry.
Getting 60% more of your own money back capitalizes you to invest in your own industries.