Final answer:
The North and South disagreed over protective tariffs because the North's industrial economy favored tariffs to shield its products from foreign competition, while the South's agricultural economy depended on trade and was hurt by retaliatory tariffs and higher costs for imports.
Step-by-step explanation:
The North and the South disagreed about a protective tariff on imported goods because of their different economic interests. The Northern states, with an expanding manufacturing base, supported tariffs as a means to protect their industries from foreign competition. These tariffs made imported goods more expensive, thereby encouraging consumers to buy American-made products, which supported northern factories and jobs.
Conversely, the Southern states' economy was heavily reliant on trade, particularly in agricultural exports like cotton and tobacco. They opposed high tariffs because they led to retaliatory measures by foreign governments, which could hurt the South's trade relationships and economy. Additional tariffs on imported goods also meant higher costs for southern consumers, who had to pay more for the manufactured goods they did not produce locally.
The conflict over tariffs was a manifestation of the broader economic and political tensions between the North and the South in the 19th century, contributing to sectionalism and, eventually, the Civil War.