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To: DoodleDawg
Could have, but would they?

It was reported that Confederate tariffs were going to be around 10%.

That either revenue from these duties must be collected in the ports of the rebel states, or the ports must be closed to importations from abroad. If neither of these things be done, our revenue laws are substantially repealed, the sources which supply our treasury will be dried up. We shall have no money to carry on the government, the nation will become bankrupt before the next crop of corn is ripe....allow railroad iron to be entered at Savannah with the low duty of ten percent which is all that the Southern Confederacy think of laying on imported goods, and not an ounce more would be imported at New York. The Railways would be supplied from the southern ports." New York Evening Post March 12, 1861 article "What Shall be Done for a Revenue?"

Perhaps they reported the facts incorrectly, and you have the correct information?

They could have done that before the rebellion as well. Why didn't they?

You cannot explain something to someone who doesn't wish to understand it. This has been covered many times before. One reason is Washington DC subsidies for the existing packet trade in the United States.

Pretty difficult to break into a market when the other guy is getting a base sum of money that you won't have to carry your operations.

Where they would have the tariff applied the moment they crossed into the U.S.

Only if you have the means to collect it along every waterway or potential border crossing, which would have been effectively impossible, and the impracticality of which was also noted by Northern Newspapers.

a series of customs houses will be required on the vast inland border from the Atlantic to West Texas. Worse still, with no protective tariff, European goods will under-price Northern goods in Southern markets. Cotton for Northern mills will be charged an export tax. This will cripple the clothing industries and make British mills prosper. Finally, the great inland waterways, the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Ohio Rivers, will be subject to Southern tolls." The Philadelphia Press 18 March 1861

339 posted on 05/04/2019 11:01:08 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp
It was reported that Confederate tariffs were going to be around 10%.

And when the Confederate Congress actually passed their tariff legislation two months later some tariffs were as high as 25%. So much for newspaper editorials.

You cannot explain something to someone who doesn't wish to understand it.

Oh go ahead and try. This should be quite amusing.

One reason is Washington DC subsidies for the existing packet trade in the United States.

Which, I assume, included the few lines that did exist between Southern ports? So if they were subsidized then other ones would have been had they been established. Yet only a handful were created by Southerners. Why, do you think?

Only if you have the means to collect it along every waterway or potential border crossing, which would have been effectively impossible, and the impracticality of which was also noted by Northern Newspapers.

Oh crap. Goods traveled by boat or train and that's about it. Monitoring tariffs along the Mississippi would be easy enough. So would monitoring the few rail lines that went between the South and the North. Your "series of custom houses" would have been a handful.

369 posted on 05/04/2019 1:17:11 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
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