The Impact of Economic Monopoly towards the Thai Agrarian Society : Ayutthaya Period to Bowring Treaty 1855

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore the impact of economic monopoly towards the Thai agrarian society: Ayutthaya Period to Bowring Treaty 1855. It was that the economic monopoly was monopolized by the Royal Monopoly “ Phrakangsinkla.” The monopoly had been emerged since Ayutthaya Period. The purchasing of trade during Ayutthaya Period until the early Rattanakosin Period had to contact directly first with Phrakangsinkla. The common people or “Phrai” could not be allowed to exchange goods among themselves without getting grant by the government. The Royal Monopoly by Phrakangsinkla had been lifted when Thailand made the Treaty of Friendship and Trade in 1855 with Great Britain and later with other European countries. Thai social and political system since Ayutthaya Period to the early Rattanakosin Period had been controlled by Sagdina or the Prai System. Prai had no opportunity to make profit in trading with foreign countries. They had to belong to “Mun Nai” and rendered their labour services to them. The government had reformed Prai of Mun Nai to be the royal soldiers in the reign of King Chulalongkorn. His policy was proclaimed in 1881, evolutionary to the Conscription Act in 1905.