Not in a long time. For every ship that could tie up in Charleston Harbor, 20 could tie up in New York, and 15 in Boston. No ship captain is going to swing at anchor for days waiting for pier space to offload his cargo. He will always look for the port that give him the fastest turn around time. This is money in his and the ship owners pocket. Money spent as anchor is lost.
“eventually it would dominate trade to the Western states.”
What did the Western States need Cotton for. That was the only commodity available from the South. If the Western states want rails, locomotives, plows, threshers, or machinery, harness leather, wagons, or single trees they looked to the North. They did not look to the South, because the South could not make them. All the South could offer was cotton
What does it matter how many ships can tie up someplace when all the profits are elsewhere? With independence, the vast majority of the potential profits for Europeans would be in Southern ports, regardless of their docking facilities.
What did the Western States need Cotton for.
Why are you so shortsighted as to think that trade with the South would only be about cotton? As the Northern newspapers I have quoted in the past noted, Iron for rails would come from Europe through southern ports. Everything manufactured in Europe would be available for trade with the Western states through the Mississippi river.
Cotton would get Europe trading with the South, but other profits would be made by shipping those European imports up the Mississippi to the west, and at prices cheaper to the buyers than the same products that the Northern power brokers would have sold them at.
If the Western states want rails, locomotives, plows, threshers, or machinery, harness leather, wagons, or single trees they looked to the North.
If they could get them cheaper from the South, they would look to the South. The evidence indicates that the could get them cheaper from the South. Even the Northern Newspapers I had previously quoted said this.
They did not look to the South, because the South could not make them. All the South could offer was cotton
Yeah, about that. How many cheap Chinese made products that we get into this country are made in California?