The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. XLIV, Part 1-2, 1956 - Khamkoo

86 Charles Nel~on Spinl~s
BattLJ.ta in the 14th century and by the Portuguese traveller Duarte
Barosa in the 16tll century.
They are also mentioned occasionally
in later accounts of Dutch and English travellers.
T. Volkor in his PO?'celw'n and the Dutch East India ComJJany
offers evidence that the Chinese, possibly as enrly as the Sung period
(long before Martaban was annexed to the Kingdom of Sukhothai ),
were shipping some of their celadon wares overland to the Peguan
ports by way of Bhamo, a trade \Vhich continued long after the
Siamese were forced out of Pegu.
Bhamo was the western terminus
for the mnle teams which entered Burma from Yiinnan. The course
was not by the Shweli River but through the Taping River pass considerably
to the north, joining the Bhauw- Myitkyina Road about
twenty miles north of Bhamo. This old Bnrma-Yiinnan mule track
is still in use. Accordingly, there developed a sizeable Chinese trading
community at Bhamo (which even today ir; predominantly a Chinese
towu ).
E'1·om Bhamo the Chinese products were shipped by boat
down the Irrawaddy River to the delta area for trans.shipment to.
India and elsewhere. No doubt mueh of these goods found their way
to Martaban because of its importance as a trading center.
As Volker notes, the Dutch East India Company became very
interested in the Martahan tra.de nnd from 1635 to 1678 maintained
factories in Pegu.
In 1670 the Company actually made an atte1npt
to op.en a post at Bhamo in order to tap lbis overland trade from
China closer to its source.
Because of fear of the Chinese, howeve.r,
the Burmese 1•efnsed to grant, permission, :for in 1659 the Shan and
. .
Kachin regions had been cn·errun by Y i:innancse refugees fleeing.
before the Manchu forces, all of which was, as Volker reminds ns,
strangely analogous to. certain events in that area in our own day,
Nevertheless, the Company continnecl to maintain an interest in the
Bhamo trade, ancl it) 1G7 fi the Company's representative in Pegu in
a report to the Governor-General at Batavia called attention to the
fact that the Chinese were coming annually to Bharno with caravans
of pack mules bearing ghoree clishes for the Indian and Near Eastern
mrwkets.