The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 had created the Year Without a Summer, causing European agriculture to fail that year. The link between the frontier land boom and overseas markets for staple goods was dramatically revealed in 1817, when Europe finally recovered from its post-war harvest shortages and began producing bumper crops. American planters and farmers, who had expanded production to exploit the European demand, discovered agricultural prices declining by half, even as production increased. Southwestern plantations were devastated when Britain began to increase its imports of East India cotton as a means to avoid purchasing the high-priced US cotton. India enjoyed not only a longer growing season and lower cost of freight to Britain, but also more cotton-devoted land than the entire Louisiana Purchase. Tench Coxe, a Pennsylvanian political economist and delegate to the Continental Congress, warned of the substantial evil exhibited in the rivalry created by foreign competition. Coxe has been dubbed by many as the father of the American cotton industry. Cotton value began to waver in 1818, threatening to burst the speculative bubble. A general contraction in lending was indicated in response to these developments in Europe.