THE SOUTH WAS NEW ENGLAND'S ECONOMIC COLONY FROM THE START | 2002-12-07
Until early this century almost the entire Federal budget was paid for by tariffs. Tariffs were paid mostly by Southerners on industrial goods imported from Europe.
So what the South got from The Glorious Union from the word go was the privilege of paying for it.
But that was the least of what the Union cost the South. Paying for almost the entire Federal Government was not the only purpose of tariffs. It was not even the main purpose of tariffs.
The main purpose of tariffs was to make Southerners pay New England manufacturers more money for New England industrial products. Instead of buying cheaper European goods Southerners had to buy Northern goods because tariffs made European goods too expensive.
In other words, from the outset of the Glorious Union in 1789, the South had to pay the entire Federal budget plus lots of money each year to New England.
The moment the South stopped being a colony of Britain, it began being an economic colony of New England. It is likely that, when it comes to the dubious profitability of slave labor, New England got more of those profits than Southern slaveholders did.