I would ask for a refund on that MBA. I minored in economics, and I understand perfectly that exporters must be compensated for their products. If the Southern states exported 250 million in products, that money, or products in that value must be returned to them. Protectionist tariffs reduce the amount they receive, whether the product is delivered to a warehouse in New York or Charleston.
And why is it so hard to accept that virtually all that return was in money, which was not subject to tariff?
Protectionist tariffs reduce the amount they receive, whether the product is delivered to a warehouse in New York or Charleston.
Yes, if the southern plantation owners operated on a barter economy but they didn't. Why would they subject themselves to that risk? It makes more sense to sell the crop to a middle man once harvested. Let someone else find an overseas buyer and take on the risk of shipping the cotton accross the Atlantic. Why put you entire income for the year on a boat yourself? What if it sinks?
There is no doubt that the south accounted for the overwhelming majority of exports in the mid-19th century. But a dollar exported from the south did not automatically translate into a dollar imported by the south, far from it. So I would ask, yet again, just what it was that you believe the south imported in such vast quantities that the tariff hit them so badly?