ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the early nineteenth century, when European mercantile commerce and British colonial military forces simultaneously began to make inroads east of the Brahmaputra River, into Assam and the Surma-Barak lowlands toward Burma and Yunnan. From early on, the purpose was to secure the overland routes to the markets of the Chinese Middle Empire. The study is explorative in its endeavor to establish the movement of mercantile commercial interests and capital into the territories that were part of the old southwest Silk Road network. It focuses on how British officers, as they explored the natural resources and markets of these territories, observed and handled the day-to-day transactions that made up the region’s social, political, and economic relations. It also discusses how the British East India Company introduced new boundaries into complex sociopolitical and ecological environments for the purpose of securing and mapping imperial visions.
