Why Guano
One dropping is worthless. Centuries of them paid for a nation.
No single dropping was worth anything. But seabirds left a little every day, and over centuries the layers on Peru’s islands became the fertilizer that fed the world’s farms and paid for a nation.
Guano works the same way: a little every day, from founders, investors and markets, layered until it helps things grow.
| On Peru’s islands | In Guano |
|---|---|
| Seabirds leave a little every day | Notes from every call, meeting and read |
| One dropping is worthless | One note is worthless |
| Centuries of layers | Layers since 2022 |
| Processed into fertilizer | Processed into insights |
| Fertilizer fed farms and funded a country | Insights help companies and decisions grow |
The full story
From 1840, Peru shipped guano dug from the Chincha Islands (13°38′S 76°24′W) to farms overseas. It became the state’s main source of revenue: over half of it on average, and 83% at the peaks in 1857 and 1869. The trade mined a stock built up over centuries, and by 1874 the Chincha deposits were mostly gone.
Today the islands sit inside a protected reserve. Crews go in only after biologists confirm no birds are nesting, work by hand, sieve out rocks and bones, and rotate between islands so the colonies keep producing. The lesson Guano takes from it: a deposit keeps its value only if you keep adding to it.
- Chincha Islands, Wikipedia
- Failure to launch: cost of living and living standards in Peru during the 19th century, Revista de Historia Económica, 2014
- In Peru, guano bird droppings are the new gold, The Washington Post, 2018
- Holy crap! A trip to the world’s largest guano-producing islands, Audubon