Ha Tien or Banteay Meas in the Time of the Fall of Ayutthaya

This detailed study of Cambodian, Vietnamese and Siamese sources depicts the power struggles around the southern maritime façade in the Mekong Delta during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Commercial ‘principalties’, often led by local Chinese rulers, saw the military rivalries between Siamese, Vietnamese and Khmer kings as an opportunity to gain more leeway. However, note the authors, “after the fall of Ayutthaya, because of the confused situation in the kingdoms along these coastlines, the port polities were able to assert greater independence and expand their territories. The progress of this trend was halted by the two big states that emerged at the end of eighteenth century as the result of state consolidation: the Siam of Thonburi and Bangkok, and the Vietnam of the Tay Son and Nguyen rulers. International trade in this period came under the control of the state in the form of royal monopolies. The history of Ha Tien should be regarded as a typical case of the rise and fall of Chinese port polities between the post- "Age of Commerce" and the precolonial stage of history.”

ADB Input:

• While it has been supposed that the famous Kampot Pepper originated from Kerala, South India, Chinese explorer Zhou Daguan mentioned pepper cultivation in Chenla (Cambodia) as early as the 13th century.
• In Kampot, the modern era of intensive pepper production can be traced back to the 1870s, when the Sultan of Aceh, who did not want to leave his wealth to the Dutch enemies, burned his pepper plantations down in 1873. Part of the production then moved to Cambodia’s Kampot region.
• See also Hà Tiên và sự hình thành nước Việt Nam hiện đại (Ha Tien and The Formation of Modern Vietnam), by Vu Duc Liem, TiaSang, 2017.