Northern businessmen favored the Compromise of 1850 because it allowed for the expansion of slavery into the western territories, thus providing a larger market for their goods. Additionally, it allowed for California to be admitted to the Union as a free state, which would help to preserve the balance of power between the North and the South. Finally, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 allowed them to benefit from the exploitation of enslaved people, who would be compelled to work without pay in cases where they were considered to have escaped their bondage.