At the time of the Great Drought, the regional difference between Northeast and Southeast was a significant factor in imperial Brazil and exacerbated the environmental disaster.[22] The Northeast had been the epicenter of the sugar-led economic boom of the 18th century and had also seen an increase in cotton production, which became one of the biggest exports by the 1800s.[23] The Southeast, on the other hand, had developed less recently, and the independent coffee industry had taken over the market, dictating exchange rates and surpassing the once fervent sugar industry and the equally important cotton industry of the Northeast.