In the year following the wars with Burma, the population of Thalang very small. During the reign of King Rama III (1824-1851) trade and commerce with foreign countries expanded, and as a result the area became very prosperous. Tin was in great demand. Because of the labour shortage , a lot of Chinese immigrants came to Phuket to work in the tin mines. At that time, Phuket became a very important tin-mining town. People were allowed to dig tin freely and paid taxes to the central government instead of having to send a certain amount of tin to the capital city as they used to do before. The Chinese migration to Phuker caused the population to swell. A new town in the present site of Phuket town soon sprang up.