effort has been made to estimate the number of fungal species endemic to Georgia, and 2595 species have been tentatively identified as possible endemics of the country. [ 120 ] 1729 species of plants have been recorded from Georgia in association with fungi. [ 118 ] The true number of plant species occurring in Georgia is likely to be substantially higher. Archaeological research demonstrates that Georgia has been involved in commerce with many lands and empires since the ancient times, largely due its location on the Black Sea and later on the historical Silk Road . Gold, silver, copper and iron have been mined in the Caucasus Mountains . Wine making is a very old tradition. The country has sizable hydropower resources. [ 121 ] Throughout Georgia's modern history agriculture and tourism have been principal economic sectors, because of the country's climate and topography. [ 122 ] For much of the 20th century, Georgia's economy was within the Soviet model of command economy . Since the fall of the USSR in 1991, Georgia embarked on a major structural reform designed to transition to a free market economy. As with all other post-Soviet states , Georgia faced a severe economic collapse. The civil war and military conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia aggravated the crisis. The agriculture and industry output diminished. By 1994 the gross domestic product had shrunk to a quarter of that of 1989. [ 123 ] The first financial help from the West came in 1995, when the