In Mizoram colonial occupation meant much more than political and administrative change. It involved an economic revolution. The local economy had always been open to the outside world, and goods from far beyond the hills had found their place in it. For example, agricultural crops from the Americas – tobacco, maize and chillies – and industrial goods from Europe – guns – had established themselves well before the colonial period. The economy had also long been linked to the ancient trade routes connecting Yunnan (southwest China) with the Bay of Bengal; the principal routes passed close to the mountain ranges of Mizoram.

In other words, Mizos were no newcomers to trade. They had long exchanged strategic goods with each other and with people in the lowlands. In the mid-nineteenth century these goods included salt, cotton, tobacco, fruits, India rubber and wax. A participant of the Lushai Expedition of 1871–1872 gives a hint of the complexity of trade patterns:

Market relations were based largely on barter – the exchange of goods for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange.