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As I keep telling you, the laws were jiggered to funnel almost all import traffic into New York where the Robber Baron crony capitalists who controlled Washington DC could get their cut.

The fact that you actually believe the crap you post has always be a source of amazement to me.

So let me see if I have this correct. Ships come from Europe bearing imported goods, sail into New York, unload, pay the tariff, load onto a different ship, sail to the Southern ports, and unload again. In the mean time those European ships, having unloaded in New York, then sail to southern ports empty in order to load up with cotton and sail back to Europe. And that makes sense to you?

Not at all, but then you didn't accurately describe how it worked. The Foreign ships didn't bother going to Southern ports because there was no advantage to doing so. Coastal packet shipping companies, (owned by pretty much the same people that owned the larger international shipping companies) moved cargo from New York to other ports.

The navigation act of 1817 made it unprofitable for foreign ships to go to Southern ports. That's why getting out of the deal would have been such an economic boon to the Southern port cities. It would have also reduced shipping prices between ports because north eastern owned shipping companies could no longer gouge because they had a monopoly.