How do governments use tariffs to influence the goods people buy?

Just because of taxes aka tariffs people aren't going to stop buying stuff therefore influenceing the goods people buy.

Tariffs are taxes on imported good. So if the government were to raise the tariff people would want to buy goods from our county. If the country were to lower the tariff, people would buy more imported goods from other countries.

The answer is society was a caste like system with poor whites at the bottom of the white social ladder.