[DiogenesLamp]

Obviously, the free states imported more than the slave states and paid more in taxes.

No. It isn't even possible. Unless you are using specie, you can't pay for European products unless you earn European money.

The South was earning 75-83% of all the European money. Therefore they were paying for the imports.

[x]

Slaveowners didn't have vast stores of pounds, francs, marks, and pesos lying around.

The took their profits in dollars.

The foreign money was in New York banks and available to buy imports.

Or do you really think that the planters had both all the foreign currency they "earned" and all the dollars they exchanged the foreign money for?

Or that they had some moral right to all the foreign money they'd exchanged and the US money they exchanged it for?