Here's how it worked. "King Cotton" was the largest revenue-generator for the ante-bellum Federal government of a primarily agrarian society. Since the Revolution, Federal revenue was raised through taxation (tariffs) on American goods sold to foreign markets (exports) and on foreign goods sold to Americans (imports). This practice aided northeastern industrialists (price supports for manufactured goods made and sold within the US) at the expense of southern farmers (slaveholders who needed field hands for growing and processing cotton sold to European mills). Over time, the population of the northeastern states overtook the southern states, setting up an imbalance in Congressional representation. Since the southern farmers paid most of the taxes, they were appalled at the direction governmental policy took (heavy tariffs and abolitionism)in opposition to their economic interests. After many attempts to reconcile these conflicting positions, the southerners simply gave up and left the United States compact, creating their own Confederate States in the interests of preserving their freedom. The institution of slavery was only one item in the list of grievances the southerners had with the Federal government.
Which all goes to show that you don't know your history. As already stated on this thread, American tariff rates at the time secession began were at an all-time low and had gotten there thanks in large part to Southern political support. So you'd have us believe that the South started breaking away from the rest of the nation at a time when the tariffs they wanted were the law of the land. I'm constantly baffled that people get these oddball notions that tariffs led to the Civil War. Apparently, these are the people who don't read their history. Instead, they prefer to just make up nonsense out of thin air.
From ditto:
"...you need to understand that tariffs, under the US Constitution, can not be and have never been applied to exports, from the South or anywhere else. They are only applied to imports..."
From bowzer313:
"...Federal revenue was raised through taxation (tariffs) on American goods sold to foreign markets (exports)..."
Ok, I'm confused.
Again, see the US Constitution, Article I, Section 9. EXPORTS ARE NOT TAXED!!!!!