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"Additionally, there are the Statistical Abstract numbers, which collaborate the other data. Together they show that New Orleans, far from being some backwater which only saw coastal packet traffic (and 300 steam boat arrivals), was a thriving international seaport--the third busiest in the US by tonnage and to which almost a third of the ships arriving from abroad carried foreign flags. That's my contention, and its amply supported by sources which you originally cited."

That is fine. Glad you looked up the data. It is also good that you realize the importance of New Orleans and the Mississippi, which I have stated was a major threat to the continuing dominance of the New York coastal trade system. You can now understand the pressure Lincoln was under while making the decision to forcibly solve the secession event.

The strawman argument that you are attempting to create about New Orleans you can have. The quotes on shipping and the comments on the impact on Southern trade have been concerning the East coast trade system, primarily the ports of Norfolk through Savannah.

Those are the ports that largely shipped through New York and encountered the costs of shipping, storage, and the regulations of the warehousing laws.

Those are the ports that largely shipped through New York and encountered the costs of shipping, storage, and the regulations of the warehousing laws.

You still haven't shown how the regulations of warehousing laws harmed the south. The warehousing laws simply made it possible for importers to delay paying the tariff on goods by holding them in bonded warehouses until they had a buyer. And the fact that foreign flagged ships comprised a solid third of all ships entering US ports from overseas shows that the navigation acts didn't have nearly the deleterious effect that you claim.

The quotes on shipping and the comments on the impact on Southern trade have been concerning the East coast trade system, primarily the ports of Norfolk through Savannah.

Again, your contentions aren't supported by the data. In 1859, Charleston saw just shy of 130,000 tons of shipping enter the port from foreign countries. Combine the numbers for Savannah and Charleston and it's the fourth busiest in the US in international traffic--not mere coastal traffic.

That fact that is that every claim you've made for some sort of economic conspiracy against the south falls on its face in the light of the data.