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

48 Benjamin A. Batson
that he be appointed to head it.l9 This time his recommendation was
adopted, but the envoy chosen was Edmund Roberts. Roberts was a
New Hampshire sea captain and a friend of Senator Levi Woodbury,
who became Secretary of the Navy in the Jackson administration.
Roberts was sent out as an Executive Agent traveling in disguise as a
captain's clerk; in Siam he quickly concluded a treaty very similar to
the British treaty of 1826. These treaties, whose major clause was a
vague pledge to allow free trade, were made on a basis of equality and
ceded none of the special privileges which the Western powers were to
receive in later treaties.zo
These first treaties did not stimulate trade between Siam and the
West as expected. The Thai Government increasingly imposed regulations
and monopolies that curtailed foreign trade, and American trade
particularly languished. It was reported that between 1828 and 1836
only two American vessels bad come to Siam to trade, and between
1838 and 1850 none at a]l.2I In response to this situation, both the
American and British Governments sent new missions to Bangkok in
1850 to secure more satisfactory treaty arrangements, and both failed,
owing mainly to the intransigent attitude of the Thai court. The
American mission was headed by Joseph Balestier, who bad been
American Consul in Rhio briefly and American Consul in Singapore from
1833 to 1849, when he resigned to devote all his time to business. He
was sent to Bangkok to explain the reciprocal benefits of free trade, but
the Thai remained unmoved by Adam Smith's logic.22
19) United States Department of State, Despatches j1·om United States Consuls
in Batavia (Djakarta), 1818-1906 (microfilm), September 18, 1825; December
10 and 17, 1830; May 30, 1831.
20) On the British treaty of 1826 and Roberts' treaty of 18 33 see Walter F. Vella,
Siam Under Rama Ill (New York, 1957), pp. 118-I 24. The Roberts mission
is also discussed in Martin, "A History," pp. 6-41 (and text of the treaty, pp.
319-321), and Roberts' own Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China,
Siam, and Muscat (New York, 1837), pp. 277-318.
21). Martin, "A History," pp. 35, 41.
22) On Balestier and his mission see Martin, "A History," pp. 42-49, and
Despatches from United States Consuls in Singapore, 1833 et seq. Both the
Balestier mission and the British mission headed by Sir James Brooke are
discussed in Vella, Siam Under Rama Ill. pp. 131-140.