"my ninety-three year-old mother-in-law still reaches for something heavy to throw at me"

LOL, I hear you!

The South prior to the Civil War, and probably well after, exported anywhere from 65-75% of what it produced. Everything else was imported.

For certain taxing imports will make the importer offset the increase by passing it on to the buyer by raising the price of the goods. An economy and culture totally based on a few exports cannot survive by taxing the imports needed for quality of life and growth. It would erase the bulk of profits. This is probably the main reason the South opposed the Morrill Tariff. But it also got in the way of the Southern plans for the future.

It is interesting to read the 1850s Southern States Ante-bellum Commercial Conventions and the resolutions they produced. It shows what the South wanted to do economically for the future.

1. Free Trade with Europe, who by 1860 had almost abolished all import duties.

2. Direct Trade with Europe---Building a large stearmship line with Europe with direct stops in Southern ports. Improvements in major harbors and rivers to support the enterprise. This steamship line with Europe would be connected via an American railway concentrated to the Chesapeake-Norfolk area by-passing New York and the Ohio Valley. By 1857 the Europe and American railroad companies were showing favor with this plan.

3. The Southern Pacific Railroad via Mexico.

Plus many other resolutions from opening the slave trade (shot down) to better education systems and more manufacturing production in the South were covered.

Interesting stuff.

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David Upton