How was agriculture and the economy in New England different from the South?
Before the Civil War, the southern slave states were exporters, while the northern states were net importers. The northern industry was not well developed, so most manufactured items were being imported. The agricultural output of the north was small compared to the southern plantation economy. The USA as a whole had a trade deficit, so the north’s imports exceeded the exports of the south. The USA corrected this by putting high tariffs on imports. See the Tariff of 1828. The slave states vehemently opposed tariffs, because tariffs hurt slavery. Exporters do not want tariffs, and the southern states were exporters. This conflict resulted in the Civil War. The north won, and we kept tariffs as the main source of revenues for the federal government. These tariffs made the USA an industrial superpower. We became an exporter nation in 1880. In 1894, Congress enacted legislation to end tariffs and replace them with income tax to raise revenues for the federal government. The Supreme Court s
