According to census figures, in the 1850s, the South produced twice the amount of food per person than the New England states.
In fact, New England grew less than the amounts needed to sustain their population, but the large manufacturing interest of that section enabled it to import food from the South and West in exchange for merchandise. New England was a net importer of its food, largely from the South.
Northern cities and states bought corn, flour, sugar, rice, tobacco, lumber, hides, beef, pork, lard, molasses, naval stores, hemp, vegetables, oysters, and fruits from the South.
The value of Southern goods shipped North in 1860 was $460 million.
The Northern states had their raw materials and food brought to them, and sent back goods manufactured under the cover of protective tariffs.
In 1860, the South imported $346 million dollars worth of products. Of this list of goods, $240 million came from the Northern manufacturers and suppliers, and overseas imported goods sold to the South was $106 million.
The entire country imported $336 million dollars in goods for that same year.
Grasping the significance and the magnitude of difference between the new Confederate tariff and the recently passed Morrill tariff, and the likelihood that the South would now transfer this demand to European goods and trade directly with Europe, Northern businessmen, politicians, and newspapermen knew that the demand for goods from the South was immense and would have a far reaching impact on their economy.
Practically every New England citizen would be affected by the loss of Southern goods traveling through the North.
Any artisan engaged in building in the shipping trade would be hurt. Any transporter engaged in carrying, any agent who sold manufactured goods, any merchant who sold to consumers in the South, any shipper, ship builder, lumberman, or laborer would be hurt.
Any brokers, exchange dealers, bankers, insurers, ware housemen, or suppliers of goods to these people would be subject to massive losses.
The profits to Northern coffers that were about to be lost were:
Bounties to fisheries, per annum………………………………$1,500,000. Customs, per annum, disbursed at the North…………………$40,000,000. Profits of northern manufacturers…………………………….$30,000,000. Profits of importers…………………………………………...$16,000,000. Profits of shipping, imports, exports………………………….$40,000,000. Profits of Travelers……………………………………………$60,000,000. Profits of agents, brokers, commissions……………………….$10,000,000 Profits from capital drawn from the South…………………….$30,000,000. Total Annual Revenue Lost………………………………… $226,500,000.
From the census data and the business-press community, it was apparent that the North knew it was approaching permanent injury. Its economy depended on manufacturing and shipping. But it neither raised its own food nor its own raw materials, nor did it furnish freights for its own shipping.
For almost 100 years, the agricultural South had essentially been the feudal states to the North. The Federal government had been used to force the South to use Northern shipping and be subject to tariffs on returned goods.
Just as Great Britain and France had their colonies for production, so did the Union have the South.
But now, and especially with the new dredging project completed at Charleston Harbor, the Southern states were about to take all their trade directly to Europe.
All of this brought about the governors of many Northern states calling on Lincoln to invade and embargo the South, which of course, is what he did.
Source for that please? Because that contradicts the figures Huertas documented in his story and which I posted in reply 155.
The entire country imported $336 million dollars in goods for that same year.
So do you care to explain how the south, importing less than a third of the goods brought from overseas, paid the bulk of the tariff?