"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?
Common sense would say that goods would be brought to the port closest to where the consumers were. If the overwhelming majority of all imports were consumed by Southerners then they would be brought to Southern ports, where those consumers were. Instead they were landed in Northern ports.
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?
Yes, it is always true. Duties were collected where the goods were landed, and there were customs houses in any port where imports arrived. Charleston had one. New Orleans had one. Mobile, Galveston, Pensacola, Norfolk, even Richmond.