After achieving independence from Spain in the 1820s, Peru needed new sources of income, and guano exports started to provide it from the early 1840s onwards. Chinese coolies were imported to excavate the mountainous deposits, while Peruvian merchants signed export contracts with British shippers. This inaugurated something of an economic boom in Peru, the so-called Guano Age, which only came to an end in the 1870s as artificial fertilizers began to take over. In Europe it helped achieve a sharp increase in productivity in market-oriented agriculture.
