Ayutthaya History

Although we are still complete beginners in Southeast Asian history, we recently finished Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit's A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World. An ambitious work that begins with pre-Ayutthaya history and ends with the Bangkok-era Chakri dynasty, Baker and Phongpaichit present several centuries of history. Beginning with early Bronze Age, Iron Age, and agricultural communities, one sees how Thailand's history predates Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, and states founded or associated with Tai-speaking peoples by millennia. The rise of long-distance trade, Indic culture, and the later Dvaravati civilization, which was likely more of a cultural than political entity, paved the path for later polities in which Ayutthaya emerged. Already established as a militarily expansive and commercial state, early Ayutthaya built its wealth through Asian trade. After a period in which military expansion was key, what could perhaps be considered "Middle Ayutthaya" rulers focused on commerce and strengthening Ayutthaya's position as an Asian entrepot. 

This era, after Naresuan, is especially interesting for the various Chinese, Persian, French, Dutch, Siam, and Burmese sources available. While the large estimates of the royal capital's population and the emergence of a peasantry may require further analysis, Siam was undoubtedly a major center of Southeast Asia's "Age of Commerce." The Persian, Japanese, European, Chinese, Malay, and Indian connections illustrate quite clearly how Siam was a central node in Asian trade. This commercial society, according to our authors, gradually changed as the nobility gained further power and control over labor (phrai). Consequently, Buddhism and the ideal king changed to meet the needs of a society with greater social discord, banditry, revolt, and inequality after the 1688 revolution. We will have to read Baker and Phongpaichit's other book to find out what transpired after Ayutthaya fell and Siam encountered the Western powers in the 19th century.