DEVELOPMENT OF THAILAND’S ECONOIC DEPENDENCY

Abstract

Following the European trade contact in mid-nineteenth century, Thailand’s economy began its radical transformation from the traditional subsistence base to be part of the global system. This process of economic change was facilitated through the making of Bangkok as an entrepot similar to other great cities during the colonial period. Bangkok then played its significant part in both international and, especially, domestic affairs. Internally it became peripheries, from which heavy and increasing export of important agricultural products to the West via Bangkok were transported. Thus Thailand’s main revenues in the colonial era depended solely on such an international transaction. After World War II however Thailand’s continued and even more involvement into capitalism, constantly through only Bangkok, has accentuated further economic dependence particularly on the industrial capitalist countries. This article is thus concerned with the process of change in Thailand, taking her political economy into account. Given an economic subordination of Thailand to the colonial powers beginning in mid-nineteenth century, while, in effect, giving rise to a dualistic nature of rural-urban polarization, this article argues that despite Bangkok’s increasingly economic prosperity, the city has structurally continued to hamper the overall country’s economic progress as a whole. A historical analysis is made with interdisciplinary interpretation.