There was 500 million per year in direct trade between the North and the South, and 200 million in trade from the South to Europe.
700 million in economic activity in a 4.5 billion economy (I think) is no small potatoes.
As to why they didn’t want them to leave it was simple patriotism,
and 700 million dollars, but mostly the 700 million dollars.
But firing on the flag was just the stupidest thing they could have done.
General Beauregard sent a messenger to Major Anderson seeking a truce. He informed Anderson that the Union Warships were arriving and that if an altercation commenced between Beauregard's forces and those warships, if Anderson would give his word that he would not fire on Beauregard's forces, Beauregard would give his word that he would not fire on Anderson's forces.
Anderson refused. He informed the messenger that if Beauregard's forces fired on any ship, he would use Fort Sumter's cannons to attack them.
Beauregard had been informed that the mission of those warships was to attack him. He had been told that very night that the Baltic was off the coast with a compliment of fighting men, and that the Harriet lane had started making it's way into the channel where it had fired at the Nashville and commanded it to stop and be boarded.
The warships orders had gone through regular military channels, and all the confederate spies had relayed what the orders were to the Confederates in the South.
Everyone knew those ships were coming and they knew they had orders to attack. This is why Beauregard sought a truce with Anderson. Anderson already knew the ships were coming because he had spoken with Gustavus Fox on the occasion of his visit some weeks earlier.
Anderson thought the plan was foolish and would almost certainly start a war. He even expressed his misgivings about how dishonorable it was to start a war in the manner it was being done by Lincoln.
But the secessionists were very stupid men.
Anything but. You are just repeating propaganda. Have you ever *READ* anything they wrote? They were very educated and articulate men. I found out the South had been trying to secede since 1816. They had secession conventions several times between 1816 and 1861.
Funny thing is, nobody tried to claim it was about slavery in these earlier secession attempts. In fact, the Union government backed down on the "tariffs of abominations" in 1833.
As a matter of fact, can’t think of anything significant. I have read some of Calhoon’s over the top speeches. Ditto for Davis and Stevens. Bueragard was a moron. And I can’t even think the rest were even literate. ;~))
For the majority of that $500 million it was food from the Midwest and clothing and shoes from New England. Throw in some iron from Pennsylvania and furniture from other northern states. The south sold rice, tobacco and cotton to the North.
Now the vast majority of the $200 million in cotton sales to Europe you have already admitted were not made by “Southerners”. It was the Cotton Factors, most of them really Northern banks. So that money from those sales ended up in the North after the Factors bought the cotton from the planters.
Why did the tariff collection occurs mostly in the North? Because that's who had the money. Your insistence that the South paid 72% of the taxes is complete and total BS.