Common sense. Tariffs are collected where the goods are landed. If the South was consuming the overwhelming majority of imported goods then why weren't those goods landed where the consumers were, in Charleston or Mobile or New Orleans? Why were they landed at New York and Boston and Philadelphia?
"Common sense.
Common sense? Common sense did not run the tariff program, determine who and what amount was paid, or what was to be paid now, or later, and where the final tariff payment would be made.
No sir, not common sense, but Federal Treasury policy. You said:
"Tariffs are collected where the goods are landed."
Do you think that was always true. Then since you claim that most goods landed in New York, how many tariff houses were there besides New York or Philadelphia?
"If the South was consuming the overwhelming majority of imported goods."
You continue to try to make that point.
You are trying to reduce a complex issue to a slogan. You need more information.
From this source, Southern Wealth and Northern Profits by Thomas Prentice Kettell, published in 1860, the total figures for import consumption have been broken down, and the numbers for the distribution of imports to regions by consumption is simplified.
For 1859, calculations show Southern consumption of imports as $106,000,000, Western consumption as $63,000,000, and Northern consumption of imports as $149,000,000. Kettell bases the split among regions on Treasury figures from 1856.
Kettell also estimates that the North sent $240,000,000 in domestic goods to the South in 1859.