Prostitutes and politicians make that much? ;o)
New York Mayor Fernando Wood once wrote,
When Disunion has become a fixed and certain fact, why may not New York disrupt the bands which bind her to a venal and corrupt master – to a people and a party that have plundered her revenues, attempted to ruin her and a party that have plundered her revenues, attempted to ruin her commerce, taken away the power of self—government, and destroyed the Confederacy of which she was the proud Empire City? Amid the gloom which the present and prospective condition of things must cast over the country, New York, as a Free City, may shed the only light and hope of a future reconstruction of our once blessed Confederacy.He, and many other northerners understood that the residual states of the union would lose millions and millions of dollars that went to Atlantic shipping and manufacturing interests, that Northern 'imports' would now face tariffs (or possibly export duties if the Confederacy voted to enact them). Without a commercial fleet and laws mandating yankee ships/crews to transport Southern exports, the British and other shippers were poised to take the shipping business out of Northern hands. Southern exporters would see a rise in net profits with the reduction in tariffs, and the average Southerner's standard of living would rise accordingly.
Conversely, millions of dollars of 'protection' money would be lost to Northern interests, their costs would rise, and many industries would simply fold in the ensuring meltdown. The Panic of 1857 would be a picnic in comparison.