The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

PATTERNS OF LAND OWNERSHIP IN CENTRAL
THAILAND DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
by
Lau renee D. Stifel·*
One of the major untold stories of Southeast Asia is the opening of
the region to world markets in the nineteenth century and the rapid
transformation of the rice-growing deltas of Burma, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Thai case is perhaps most obscure. Analyses of the aggregate
economic data, especially the trade statistics, have left the peasants
responsible for the transformation in the shadow of history. In contrast
to Burma, there has been no Furnivall to plead their case nor British
colonial officers' reports to serve as the basis for historical studies.
The purpose of this study is to elucidate the Thai experience by
examining changing patterns of land ownership in two provinces, Ayuthia
and Nakhon Pathom, in the Chao Phya Delta since 1910. The rice
economy of the Central Plain had been firmly established by that time.
After the booming decades of the 1880's and 90's, an extended recession
from 1905 to 1912 was a watershed marking the start of a period of
slower growth.! To the extent of their availability, the basic economic
data defining agricultural expansion in the two provinces from 1910 to
1970 are presented in Appendix A.
A brief outline of economic conditions in the Central Plain during
this period serves as a preface to the statistical detail in the body of the
paper. The agricultural recovery in the first decade, the 1910's, from
the earlier recession was only p·artial, because of low prices during World
War I, severe floods in 1917 and drought in 1919. The 1920's were
generally prosperous in the Central Plain with high prices, growing
* The author wishes to thank the following individuals for helpful comments on
an earlier draft of this paper: David Feeney, David B. Johnston, H. Leedom
Lefferts, James N. Ril~y, Ammar.Siamwalla, Leslie E. Small, and David K . .Wyatt.
I) David B. Johnston. Rural Society and the Rice Economy in Thailand, 1880-193u.
(typewritten, draft Ph.D. Thesis, submitted to Yale University, 1975), Chapter
VII.