In many of these historical cases, surplus lands and labor were used to produce commodities for both local consumption and export.Reductions in transportation costs facilitated exports. In Thailand, for example, rice production increased sharply in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and much of the increased production went to export markets. In many colonies, exports of primary production were extracted for use in more developed countries, and often a large share of the benefits of these exports was not realized by the local countries but was transferred to the developed countries.