In the decades following its annexation to the Indian Empire in 1852, Lower Burma (the Irrawaddy-Sittang delta region) was transformed from an underdeveloped and sparsely populated backwater of the Konbaung Empire into the world’s largest exporter of rice. This seminal and far-reaching work focuses on two major aspects of that transformation: the growth of the agrarian sector of the rice industry of Lower Burma and the history of the plural society that evolved largely in response to rapid economic expansion. “Adas has made a major contribution to the study of economic history and development of Burma and demonstrated most impressively what can be achieved by imaginative and careful scholarship to our understanding of colonial regimes in Southeast Asia.” —Albert D. Moscotti, Journal of Asian and African Studies.