The boom and bust of the guano industry

The discovery of guano, a potent fertilizer, led to a huge boom in the 19th century as it was extracted from Peruvian islands and shipped worldwide. Vast fortunes were made rapidly, but the Peruvian leaders used the income to leverage foreign loans, leading to a brief gilded age. However, by the late 1850s, the workers began to deplete the guano deposits that had accumulated over thousands of years, resulting in a swift downfall of the industry.