"[Adam] Smith warned that natural liberty faces natural obstacles in the form of human nature, particularly the desire of especially “merchants and manufacturers” to “rig the system.” They accomplish this self-enriching corruption of free markets by using the power of government to procure for themselves “systems either of preference or of restraint.” In so doing, they impose an “absurd tax on the rest of their fellow-citizens.” These preferences and restraints are what we today call crony capitalism.
This is what the North did to the South because they had control of Congress. They rigged the economic system through government passed laws to favor the Northern merchants and industrialists.
This is why the South wanted out of the system. The South would have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue into their economy, just from leaving the North.
In the Bible, if the merchants tried to do business on the Sabbath, they were to be put to death. You have to put your boot on the necks of the merchants or else theytake over as they have. From the beginning of human history, money talks.