Rayong

Rayong lies on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Thailand, where fishing, farming, and maritime connections supported settlement. Its coastal position linked local communities with routes toward the Chao Phraya heartland and the ports farther east. Inland cultivation supplied food, while boats carried products between coastal markets. The surrounding landscape therefore connected village production with a wider commercial world rather than depending only on traffic passing offshore.

During the Ayutthaya period, eastern coastal districts formed part of the kingdom's network of provincial authority and trade. In early 1767, before Ayutthaya fell to Burmese forces, Taksin broke out of the besieged capital and travelled east to Rayong. There he gathered followers before moving on to Chanthaburi and building the force with which he later reclaimed Ayutthaya. Rayong thus played a part in the establishment of the subsequent Thonburi kingdom.