ABSTRACT
A major concern with locating routes of communication was ensuring lines of defence in case of the Burmese aggrandisement. Such security concerns were undoubtedly enmeshed with the commercial intentions of the British East India Company. The extensive report, which the latter submitted under the orders of the Government of Bengal, furnished a graphic account of not only the internal condition of the country but also its administrative structure, state of commerce and resources – agricultural, mineral and forest products. A focus on the direction of trade and traffic of commodities passing through Assam around 1833 reveals the stimulus arisen for trade through Shan provinces into China. At the crossroads of consumption and commerce, opium was the ‘perfect modern commodity of exchange’. Around five trade routes from Sadiya and Upper Assam leading to Tibet and China proper had been identified.
