Warring Societies of Pre-colonial Southeast Asiafrom people in a certain area during a specific period. In return, the king
obtained a set amount of money offered by the prospective tax farmers.
The system was applied more extensively during the Third Reign. An
additional 38 items such as pepper, teak, coconut oil, sugar, tobacco,
shrimp paste, iron pans and firewood were taxed.
The historians Lysa Hong and Nidhi Aeusrivongse agree that the
successful shift to the tax farming system as the major source of state rev-
enue was a result of the royal promotion of private commercial ventures
to engage in foreign trade after the Thonburi period. In response to the
increasing demand of the world market, the capacity of the country’s
production consequently expanded and thus could sustain the extensive
use of the tax farming system by the state.^22
Despite the Siamese government’s ability to adapt to changing
circumstances, as demonstrated by its abandonment of the royal trad-
ing monopoly system, it is obvious that towards the end of the Second
Reign the Siamese government confronted several difficulties which
required it to seek another revenue resource. Even though the foreign
trade of Siam with both China and western countries expanded during
the Second Reign, the government suffered a crisis of revenue shortage
as its expenditure was higher than its revenues. In some years, Rama II
had to reduce by about half the amount of biawat, or grants for mem-
bers of the royal family and the nobility, even substituting the biawat
with products gained from the suai or head tax payment.^23 The Royal
Treasury also experienced setbacks in the royal junk trade with China.^24
In some years, the price of export products for the Chinese market
fluctuated, bringing a lower profit or disadvantaging Siamese junks.^25
Although this was not the case every year, the trade with China was still
the most important for Siam. Therefore such instability coupled with
- Hong Lysa, Thailand in the Nineteenth Century: Evolution of the Economy and
Society (Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1984): 83–85; Nidhi
Aeusrivongse, Pakkai lae bairua [The Sail and the Quill] (Bangkok: Sinlapa
Wathanatham, 1984): 85–100. - Damrongrachanuphap, Prince, Phraratchaphongsawadan rattanakosin ratchakan
thi song (Hereafter PKRR II) [The Dynastic Chronicle of the Second Reign of the
Chakri Dynasty], 2 volumes (Bangkok: Khurusapha, 1961): 2.204–06. - Hong, Thailand in the Nineteenth Century: 45–47.
- Sarasin Viraphol, Tribute and Profit: Sino–Siamese Trade, 1652–1853 (Cambridge,
Harvard University Press, 1977): 225.