Diogenes is apparently thinking that the tariff was some sort of income tax and that the South “earned” foreign money for the country and was taxed on that income. That’s not true. The tax was on imports.
Southern plantation owners didn’t have stacks of pounds, marks and francs lying around. That foreign currency stayed with the bankers. Northerners were earning enough US money to buy foreign goods with that foreign currency. There weren’t enough planters to buy 72% of what the US imported.
Also, there’s no point in being cynical and skeptical about politicians if you naively believe everything Southern radical politicians said to promote secession.
If there were no exports there would have been no imports. Once again, someone is trying to tell me that stuff can come out of the Horse with nothing going into the Horse.
Northerners were earning enough US money to buy foreign goods with that foreign currency.
And it comes down to the same question I have asked previously. How do Northerners earn enough foreign currency to buy foreign products? BroJoeK tries to finesse the question by pointing to Gold purchases, but this cannot be sustained indefinitely, and nations are loath to give up their gold when they can use trade instead.
Europe bought Northern items with 28% of their trade. How did Northern customers get enough foreign cash or credit to buy more than that?
My answer is they wrangled it out of the Southern trade with Europe.