for Chilean agricultural products, was closed to commerce with independent Chile. The Guerra a muerte phase was particularly destructive for the Biobío area and ended only to see a period of outlaw banditry (e.g. Pincheira brothers) occur until the late 1820s. Chilean mining activity came out of the independence wars with relatively little damage. Trade with Peru did not fully recover after the independence struggles, instead commerce with United States, France and United Kingdom took off in the 1820s. During the Chilean Independence War the scarcity of weapons in the Chilean market forced the patriots to do large weapon purchases abroad or to the ships that anchored at Chilean ports. In addition to the finance of the Chilean army the nascent Chilean state had also to wholly finance the Chilean-Argentine Army of the Andes after San Martín begun to disobey the orders from Argentina and the Freedom Expedition of Perú, originally thought to be financed in part by Argentina. An expensive loan of £1,000,000 taken in 1822 in London in order to finance the independence struggle became a heavy burden for the Chilean state and took decades to pay off. Finance minister Diego José Benavente attempted to reform the tax system but met severe opposition to many measures. To pay off the loan the Chilean state granted the company Sociedad Portales, Cea y Cía a sales monopoly of tobacco in Chile, but this activity ended in failure. Liberalism Early republican boom (1830–1873) In the early republican period Chilean international trade grew considerably. Merchants from countries like England, Italy, Germany and the United States settled in Chile. Chile was officially open to trade to all nations since 1811 but applied protectionist policies to favour domestic production in a manner that has been called neomercantilism. Chile's relative openness to international trade contrasted with contemporary truly protectionistic policies of Peru and Argentina. The 1830–1870 period was one of the greatest growth for the Chilean economy and was largely indebted to two export booms: the copper and silver mining in Norte Chico and the Chilean wheat cycle. The overall development resulted in Chile becoming one of the high-income countries in South America. Following the discovery of silver at Agua Amarga (1811) and Arqueros (1825) the Norte Chico mountains north of La Serena were exhaustively prospected. In 1832 prospector Juan Godoy found a silver outcrop (reventón) 50 km south of Copiapó in Chañarcillo. The finding