Kaptai

Kaptai lay in the Chittagong hill country, where the Chakma rulers' dealings with lowland powers turned cotton into a political obligation. A settlement with the Mughals in 1715 required an annual cotton tribute in exchange for trade and peace. British demands for a larger payment provoked renewed conflict in the later eighteenth century.

Expeditions entered Chakma territory in 1777 and 1780. Ronu Khan resisted with Kuki assistance, while the British used closed markets and blocked supplies to put pressure on the hills. In 1787 Raja Jan Bux Khan negotiated with Governor-General Cornwallis in Calcutta and agreed to a cotton payment. The tribute was converted into money in 1791 and adjusted again in 1832 and 1837. These struggles linked the hill communities around Kaptai to distant Company authorities through access to markets, supplies and the obligations imposed upon their rulers.