REVKJEWS - Siamese Heritage Protection Program

REVIEWS 155
tion. It constitutes, in fact, a social history of the Dutch in Seventeenth Century Ayut­
thaya. The Siamese could not have been naive enough to perceive the V.O.C. personnel
in Siam as a group of phrai under a nai, but they appreciated the Netherlanders' attempts
to conform to their system of hierarchy and manpower organisation. Dr. Smith tells
how, from experience, the Dutch learned to maintain this "low profile" while the
French made social and diplomatic faux pas. He also corrects the impression that the
French were the ones who supplied King Narai with all things European. The V.O.C.
often obliged the King by supplying him with scientific tools, luxury goods, and skilled
personnel. The French arrived in Siam much later than the Dutch, and supplied the
Siamese court with fewer artisans.
Last but not least, Dr. Smith's work establishes once and for all the importance
of Dutch sources in the study of Ayutthaya history. His Appendix I is an excellent
survey of Dutch sources on Seventeenth Century Siam, bringing to our attention hitherto
neglected works such as those by Gijsbert Heecq and Joannes Keijts. Matters of
authorship and authenticity are also cleared up. For instance, Dr. Smith convincingly
argues that the "Desfarges" account of the 1688 upheavals was indeed wdtten by the
French commander, and not by a Dutchman. He also raises strong objections to the
validity of Jan Struijs' highly coloured account of Siam as a primary source .. The most
important sources, however, are the V.O.C. archives at the Algemeen Rijksarchief in
The Hague. The author rightly emphasizes the special value of the Overgekomen
Brieven collection, The documents in this collection, mostly written in Ayutthaya,
are necessarily limited in the scope of their subject-matter, being in the main merchants'
letters. Nevertheless the V.O.C. records form the most complete set of archives relevant
to the history of Siam from 1604 to circa 1765. George Vinal Smith's book will
surely inspire more historians to use Dutch source material in their study of Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Century Siam.
School of Oriental and African Studies,
London University ·
Dhiravat na Pomhejra