Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T18:05:07.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Unraveling the Myth of the Subsistence Economy: Textile Production in Nineteenth-Century Northern Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Get access

Extract

For decades, scholarship on the Thai peasantry has proceeded as if the history of the peasantry were known. Scholars have luxuriated in tourist-brochure images of primeval abundance, reiterating unchallenged the famous adage from the thirteenth-century stele of King Ramkhamhaeng, “There is fish in the water and rice in the fields.” Little hyperbole exists in Thadeus Flood's statement, “For the past century much Western imperialist scholarship and Thai royalist scholarship has sought to perpetuate the image of benign Thai royalty ruling over a happy, carefree, and subservient populace dwelling in a land of sunshine and smiles” (1975:55). For observers of modern Thai society, demonstrations by discontented peasants and assassinations of their leaders have destroyed the myth of a rustic paradise. Nonetheless, the theme of self-sufficiency continues to dominate the literature on Thai history.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Archer, Vice Consul. 1894. Trade Report of Chiang Mai. In Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget. June 28, 1895.Google Scholar
Black, J. Stewart. 1899. Trade Report of Chiang Mai. In Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget. October 22, 1900.Google Scholar
FO69: Foreign Office Series No. 69. Public Records Office, London, England.Google Scholar
McLeod Mss: Journal of Captain McLeod. Manuscript Division, British Museum, London, England, 1836.Google Scholar
Rgwb: Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget. Available on microfilm. Cornell University Library.Google Scholar
Richardson Mss: Journal of Dr. Richardson. Manuscript Division, British Museum, London, England, 1830–1836.Google Scholar
Satow Mss: Journal of Sir Ernest Satow. PRO30/33(21/1). Public Records Office, London, England, 1885–1886.Google Scholar
Stringer, Actin G Vice-Consul. 1890. Trade Report of Chiang Mai. In Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget. May 16, 1891.Google Scholar
Stringer, Actin G Vice-Consul. 1891. Trade Report of Chiang Mai. In Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget. June 24, 1892.Google Scholar
Ganjanapan., Anan 1984. “The Partial Commercialization of Rice Production in Northern Thailand (1900–1981).” Ph.D. Diss., Cornell University.Google Scholar
Anuman Rajadhon, Phya. 1961. Life and Ritual in Old Siam: Three Studies of Thai Life and Customs. Trans, and ed. Gedney, William J.. New Haven: HRAF Press.Google Scholar
Anuman Rajadhon, Phya. 1988. Essays on Thai Folklore. Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development and Sathirakoses Nagapradipa Foundation.Google Scholar
Backus, Mary, ed. 1884. Siam and Laos as Seen by our American Missionaries. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Bell, Peter. 1982. “Western Conceptions of Thai Society: The Politics of American Scholarship.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 12(1):6174.Google Scholar
Bell, Peter F., and Punyodhana., Boonsanong 1974. “The Sources of Change in Thailand.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 4(2):209–17.Google Scholar
Blanchard, Wendell. 1957. Thailand. New Haven: Human Relations Area File.Google Scholar
Bock, Carl. 1986 [1884]. Temples and Elephants: Travels in Siam in 1881–1882. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bowie, Katherine A. 1988. “Peasant Perspectives on the Political Economy of the Northern Thai Kingdom of Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth Century: Implications for the Understanding of Peasant Political Expression.” Ph.D. Diss., University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Bowie, Katherine A. Forthcoming. “Cloth and the Fabric of Northern Thai Society in the Nineteenth Century: From Peasants in Cotton to Lords in Silks.” American Ethnologist.Google Scholar
Bradley, Cornelius Beach. 1909. “The Oldest Known Writing in Siamese: The Inscription of Phra Ram Khamhaeng of Sukhothai.” Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 6 (Part 1): 168.Google Scholar
Brailey, Nigel J. 1968. “The Origins of the Siamese Forward Movement in Western Laos, 1850–92.” Ph.D. Diss., University of London.Google Scholar
Breazeale, Kennon. 1971. “A Transition in Historical Writing: The Works of Prince Damrong Rachanuphap.” Journal of the Siam Society 59 (Part 2):2550.Google Scholar
Breman, Jan. 1988. The Shattered Image: Construction and Deconstruction of the Village in Colonial Asia. Comparative Asian Studies Series Monograph No. 2. Providence, R.I.: Foris Publications.Google Scholar
Bristowe, W. S. 1976. Louis and the King of Siam. London: Chatto and Windus.Google Scholar
Brown, Ian. 1980. “Government Initiative and Peasant Response in the Siamese Silk Industry, 1901–1913.” Journal of the Siam Society 68.2 (July):3447.Google Scholar
Calavan, Sharon Kay. 1974. “Aristocrats and Commoners in Rural Northern Thailand.” Ph.D. Diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Carter, A. Cecil. 1988 [1904], The Kingdom of Siam. Bangkok: Siam Society.Google Scholar
Samudavanija., Chaianan 1976. Sakdinaa kap phatthanakaan khong sangkhomthai [Sakdina and the Development of Thai Society]. Bangkok: Namaksonkaanphim.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, James R., ed. 1991. The Ram Khamhaeng Controversy: Collected Papers. Bangkok: The Siam Society.Google Scholar
Kasetsiri., Charnvit 1979. “Thai Historiography from Ancient Times to the Modern Period.” Perceptions of the Past in Southeast Asia. Ed. Reid, Anthony and Marr, David. Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
Nartsupha, Chattip and Prasartset, Suthy, eds. 1978. The Political Economy of Siam 1851–1910. Bangkok: Social Science Association of Thailand Press.Google Scholar
Vaddhanaphuti., Chayan 1981. “Thai Social Formation: Current Debates.” Southeast Asian Chronicle 80: 2224.Google Scholar
Vaddhanaphuti., Chayan 1984. “Cultural and Ideological Reproduction in Rural Northern Thai Society.” Ph.D. Diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Clifford, James. 1988. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Colquhoun, Archibald Ross. 1883. Across Chryse. 2 Vols. London.Google Scholar
Colquhoun, Archibald Ross. 1885. Amongst the Shans. London: Field and Tuer.Google Scholar
Cort, Mary Lovina. 1886. Siam: The Heart of Farther India. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph and Co.Google Scholar
Dalton, George. 1972. “Peasantries in Anthropology and History.” Current Anthropology 13.3–4 (June-October):385415.Google Scholar
Dalton, George. , ed. 1967. Tribal and Peasant Economies: Readings in Economic Anthropology New York: Natural History Press.Google Scholar
De Young, John E. 1966. Village Life in Modern Thailand. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dodd, William Clifton. 1923. The Tai Race: Elder Brother of the Chinese. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press.Google Scholar
Fitch, Ralph. 1903–5 [1599]. “The Voyage of M. Ralph Fitch, Marchant of London.” In Hakluyt, Richard, ed., The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, 1599. Vol. 5, pp. 465505. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons.Google Scholar
Flood, Thadeus. 1975. “The Thai Left Wing in Historical Context.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (April–June): 55–67.Google Scholar
Forbes, A. 1987. “The ‘cin-ho’ (Yunnanese Chinese) Caravan Trade with North Thailand During the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.” Asian History 21.2:147.Google Scholar
Fraser-Lu, Sylvia. 1988. Handwoven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Graham, W. A. 1924. Siam. London: Alexander Moring Ltd., De La More Press.Google Scholar
Griswold, A. B., and Na Nagara., Prasert 1971. “The Inscription of King Rama Gamhen of Sukhodaya (1291 A.D.): Epigraphic and Historical Studies No. 9.” Journal of the Siam Society 59 (Part 2): 179228.Google Scholar
Gudeman, Stephen. 1978. The Demise of a Rural Economy: From Subsistence Capitalism in a Latin American Village. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Guy, John. 1990. “Indian Textiles for the Thai Market: A Royal Prerogative?” Textiles in Trade: Proceedings of the Textile Society of American Biennial Symposium, p. 215. September 14–16, 1990, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Hallett, Holt. 1890. A Thousand Miles on Elephant in the Shan States. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Hanks, Lucien M. 1972. Rice and Man: Agricultural Ecology in Southeast Asia. Chicago: Aldine.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Ann Maxwell. 1982. “Familiar Strangers: The Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand.” Ph.D. Diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Hindess, Barry, and Hirst, Paul Q.. 1975. Precapitalist Modes of Production. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Ingram, James C. 1964. “Thailand's Rice Trade and the Allocation of Resources.” In Cowan, C. D., ed., The Economic Development of Southeast Asia. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.Google Scholar
Ingram, James C. 1971. Economic Change in Thailand, 1850–1970. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Keyes, Charles F. 1987. Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation-State. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Kingshill, Konrad. 1976. Ku Daeng, The Red Tomb: A Village Study in Northern Thailand, 1954–1974. Bangkok: Suriyaban Publishers.Google Scholar
Krader, Lawrence. 1975. The Asiatic Mode of Production. Assen: Van Gorcum and Co.Google Scholar
Lefferts, H. Leedom Jr. 1988. “The Kings as Gods: Textiles in the Thai State.” In Vollmer, John E., ed., Proceedings of the First Symposium of the Textile Society of America. Minneapolis Institute of Art, September 16–18, pp. 7885.Google Scholar
Lefferts, H. Leedom Jr. 1990. “Textile Exchange in T’ai Societies.” Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Thai Studies, May 11–13, 1990. Vol. 1. Kunming, China: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 363–71.Google Scholar
Le May, Reginald. 1926. An Asian Arcady: The Land and Peoples of Northern Siam. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Leonowens, Anna H. 1952 [1873]. Siamese Harem Life. London: Arthur Barker Ltd.Google Scholar
Lysa, Hong. 1984. Thailand in the Nineteenth Century: Evolution of the Economy and Society. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Mccarthy, James. 1900. Surveying and Exploring in Siam. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Murashima, Eiji. 1988. “The Origin of Modern Official State Ideology in Thailand.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 19.1 (March):8096.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patel, M. V. 1990. “Silver Challenge Cups and a Bronze Frog Drum: Colonialism and the Development of Teak Capitalism in Northern Thailand.” M. A. Thesis, Macquarie University.Google Scholar
Phillips, Herbert P. 1973. “Some Premises of American Scholarship on Thailand.” In Fischer, Joseph, ed., Foreign Values and Southeast Asian Scholarship Berkeley: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Craig J. 1973. “The Case of K. S. R. Kulap: A Challenge to Royal Historical Writing in Late Nineteenth Century Thailand.” Journal of the Siam Society 62 (Part 2):6390.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Craig J. 1979. “Religious Historical Writing and the Legitimation of the First Bangkok Reign.” In Reid, Anthony and Marr, David, eds., Perceptions of the past in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Craig J. 1987. Thai Radical Discourse: The Real Face of Thai Feudalism Today. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Craig J., and Lysa., Hong 1983. “Marxism in Thai Historical Studies.” The Journal of Asian Studies 43.1 (November):77104.Google Scholar
Savage, Victor R. 1984. Western Impressions of Nature and Landscape in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Singapore University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, George Vinal. 1977. The Dutch in Seventeenth-Century Thailand. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Special Report No. 16. Detroit: Cellar Books.Google Scholar
Prangwatthanakun, Songsak and Cheesman., Patricia 1987 [2530]. Lanna Textiles: Yuan, Lue, Lao. Chiang Mai University: Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture. Bangkok: Amarin Printing Group.Google Scholar
Tanham, George K. 1974. Trial in Thailand. New York: Crane-Russak.Google Scholar
Thorner, Daniel. 1968. “Peasantry.” In Sills, David L., ed., Internation al Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, Vol. 11. New York: Macmillan Company, pp. 503–11.Google Scholar
Turton, Andrew, Fast, Jonathan and Caldwell, Malcolm, eds. 1978. Thailand: Roots of Conflict. Nottingham: Spokesman.Google Scholar
Wilson, David A. 1959. “Thailand and Marxism.” In Trager, Frank N., ed., Marxism in Southeast Asia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 58101.Google Scholar
Wilson, David A. 1962. Politics in Thailand. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Chiengkul., Witayakorn 1983. “The Transformation of the Agrarian Structure of Central Thailand, 1960–1980.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 13.3:340–60.Google Scholar
Wyatt, David K. 1976. “Chronicle Traditions in Thai Historiography.” In Cowan, C. D. and Wolters, O. W., eds., Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays Presented to D. G. E. Hall. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Younghusband, Lt. G. J. 1888. Eighteen Hundred Miles on a Burmese Tat London: W. H. Allen and Co.Google Scholar