The city of Ayutthaya was founded in 1351 CE in the Chao Phraya Basin, in modern-day Thailand, and soon emerged as a dominant force in the region, turning neighbouring mueang, or city-states, into its tributaries.
[1]
This was largely thanks to its advantageous geographical position, which allowed it to become an entrepôt where goods could be exchanged between China to the east, India and Arabia to the west, and the Malay archipelago to the south.
[2]
In 1569, Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese army.
[3]
Here, we only consider the second phase of the polity’s history, starting in 1593, when Ayutthaya regained its independence after defeating Burma at the Battle of Nong Sarai.
[4]
The kingdom flourished throughout the 17th century, regaining its status as the dominant political and economic power of mainland Southeast Asia and ruling over Khmer, Lao, Lanna, and Shan.
[5]
The polity may have reached its peak under King Borommakot (reigned 1733‒1758): during this time, Ayutthaya faced no serious external threats (indeed, it made peace with Burma and consolidated its hold over Cambodia), and supplanted Sri Lanka as the preeminent centre of Buddhist culture.
[6]
Shortly afterwards, however, hostilities with Burma resumed due to the ambitions of a new Burmese dynasty. In 1767, Ayutthaya was once again captured ‒ and this time, it was destroyed.
[7]
A number of different spellings of Ayutthaya are in use, including Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, and Ayuthia.
[8]
Population and political organization
In the Ayutthaya Kingdom, kings ruled over a society composed of a ’service nobility of maybe 2000 people and their families, and a mass of people bound to surrender some or all of their labour to the elite’.
[9]
There was a four-part administrative structure: one ministry was dedicated to the palace and the capital; one to military affairs and relations with tributary states and cities; one to trade, the treasury, and foreign communities; and one, made up of Brahmans, to ritual, astrology, and records.
[9]
It is difficult to give a firm figure for the population of the kingdom as a whole. However, Ayutthaya may have been the largest city in Southeast Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries,
[10]
with perhaps 150,000 inhabitants in 1700 and 160,000 in 1750.
[11]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, xv, 7-13) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[2]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 10) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3]: (Wyatt 1984, 100) David K. Wyatt. 1984. Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[4]: (Wyatt 1984, 103) David K. Wyatt. 1984. Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[5]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 13-18) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6]: (Wyatt 1984, 130-31) David K. Wyatt. 1984. Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[7]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 21-22) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8]: (Ooi 2004, xxiii) Keat Gin Ooi. 2004. Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia from Angkor Wat to East Timor. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
[9]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 15) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[10]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, 13) Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2009. A History of Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11]: Christopher K. Chase-Dunn 2001, personal communication 2012
| 47 P | |
| 47 Q | |
| 48 P | |
| 48 Q |
| Ayutthaya |
| Ayutthaya |
| Ayutthaya | |
| Ayuthaya | |
| Ayudhya | |
| Ayuthia | |
| Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya | |
| Anajak Ayutthaya | |
| Krung Kao | |
| Samai Krung Si Ayutthaya |
| nominal allegiance to [---] |
| Indianized Southeast Asia |
| Rattanakosin |
| 2,175,000 km2 |
| continuity |
| Succeeding: Ayutthaya (th_ayutthaya) [continuity] | |
| Succeeding: Rattanakosin (th_rattanakosin) [continuity] |
| present |
| absent |
| absent |
| present |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred absent |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| unknown |
| absent |
| Year Range | Ayutthaya (th_ayutthaya) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1594 CE 1767 CE) | Cambodian Basin |
"Because of its prime location for trade, Ayutthaya was the capital of an enlarged federation [in the 15th and 16th centuries]. But the northern city of Phitsanulok operated a a second capital (the Portuguese sometimes described them as twin states) because of its strategic location for the wars against Lanna." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 10)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
’Likewise, spelling variations abound owing to the transliteration of indigenous languages into the Roman alphabet. Hence Ayutthaya, Ayuthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia, and Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta.’ [1] ’Uthong’s regnal name was Ramathibodi, or the Great Rama who ruled over Siamese Ayudhya (Ayudhya having been the name of the capital of Rama in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana).’ [2]
[1]: (Ooi 2004, p. xxiii)
[2]: (Kasetsiri 1991, p. 76)
The reign of Borommakot. "To a generation that, in the 1780s and 1790s, was looking back at Ayudhya, the reign of Borommakot must have seemed a sort of golden age, an ideal to be recaptured. There was much about Borommakot’s reign that accorded with traditional ideas of the virtues of good kings and so won him acclaim". During Borommakot’s reign, Ayutthaya succeeded Ceylon as "the preeminent center of Buddhism" ("a party of eighteen Siamese monks was dispatched to Kandy to reordain Singhalese monks and establish what was to become a Siam order of monks on Ceylon", in response to a 1751 mission "from Ceylon requesting aid in restoring Singhalese Buddhism, which had declined under Portuguese and Dutch rule"). Moreover, Ayutthaya consolidated its control over Cambodia, and established peaceful relations with Burma. "To the end of the reign, Ayudhya faced no serious external threats, and there was no military levée en masse." [1]
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, pp. 130-131)
invaded NGA 1594 CE
"On the fall of Ayudhya in 1569, the Burmese installed Maha Thammaracha (r. 1569-1590) on the throne, thoroughly looted the city, and led thousands of prisoners, both commoners and nobles, away to captivity in Burma."
[1]
Ayudhya freed itself from the Burmese yoke on 1593, with the Battle of Nong Sarai: "Ayudhya’s independence was now secured, and for the next generation, the Burmese kings would be on the defensive against Ayudhya, the tables of war thus turning for the first time in thirty years."
[2]
The tables turned in favour of Burma again in the 1760s: after a siege, "on April 27, 1767, [the Burmese] finally breached the walls and took the ancient capital"
[3]
.
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 100)
[2]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 103)
[3]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 136)
’The differing understandings of what the tributary relationship entailed are evident in an incident in October 1592 when King Narasuan of Ayutthaya offered Siamese naval assistance to the Ming court in its struggle to contain the depredations of Japanese pirates. The offer was refused, for from the Chinese point of view it would have been demeaning, and an admission of Chinese weakness, to have accepted. In the mandala world of Southeast Asia, however, it was usual for an ally to contribute military assistance in time of war. Narasuan may have hoped for some quid pro quo in his own conflict with the Burmese, but his offer, and the Ming refusal, point to essential differences in worldview.’ [1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 34)
In 1569, after a protracted military campaign, Burmese forces took the capital and "installed the obsequious Maha Thammaracha as vassal king of Ayudhya" [1] . Besides the subordination to Burmese rule in the period between 1569 and 1592, sources do not indicate any significant changes in the polity after 1569.
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 95)
In 1569, after a protracted military campaign, Burmese forces took the capital and "installed the obsequious Maha Thammaracha as vassal king of Ayudhya" [1] .
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. 95)
"The new regime portrayed itself as a restoration of Ayutthayan tradition [...]. The capital was moved across the river to Bangkok, and built on similar principles to Ayutthaya--an island created by closing a river meander with a canal. The word Ayutthaya was inscribed in the city’s official name. The remains of shattered Ayutthayan monuments were brought to the city and incorporated into its new buildings. All surviving manuscripts were sought out and complied into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
"The group of languages now known as Tai probably originated among peoples who lived south of the Yangzi River before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area from the 6th century BC. As the Han armies came to control China’s southern coastline in the first few centuries AD, some of these peoples retreated into the high valleys in the hills behind the coast. Then, over many centuries, some moved westwards, spreading Tai language dialects along a 1000-kilometre arc from the Guanxi interior to the Brahmaputra valley. They probably took with them some expertise in growing rice using the water flow from mountain streams." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, pp. 4-5)
"The group of languages now known as Tai probably originated among peoples who lived south of the Yangzi River before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area before the Han Chinese spread from the north into the area from the 6th century BC. As the Han armies came to control China’s southern coastline in the first few centuries AD, some of these peoples retreated into the high valleys in the hills behind the coast. Then, over many centuries, some moved westwards, spreading Tai language dialects along a 1000-kilometre arc from the Guanxi interior to the Brahmaputra valley. They probably took with them some expertise in growing rice using the water flow from mountain streams." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, pp. 4-5)
levels.
[1]
.
1. AyutthayaThe capital.
2. "Great cities" (mahanakhon)Including "the old northern cities" and "ports around the head of the gulf".
3. Tributary centresFor example, "the port cities down the peninsula which simultaneously looked southwards to the Malay world", as well as urban centres in "the interior states of Khmer, Lao, Lanna, and Shahn".
4. VillagesInferred from the fact that most of the population would likely not have lived in cities (RA’s guess).
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 13)
levels.
[1]
1. Somdet Phra Sangharat (Supreme Patriarch)
2. Chao kana yai (Sangha general governors.There were three.
3. Phraracha kana"[T]he heads of monks in the capital and important provinces".
[2]
4. Phra khru"The head monks of the lesser provinces".
[2]
5. Abbots
6. Ordinary monks
[1]: (Suksamran 1982, pp. 31-32)
[2]: (Suksamran 1982, p. 32)
levels. "Ranks and titles were conferred on the bureaucratic and military nobility until the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, a rank and title usually being associated with an office. The chaophraya were highest on the list, the equivalents of cabinet ministers, generals, and the governors of the most important provincial cities. On a descending scale came phraya, phra, luang, and khun."
[1]
1. Chaophraya
2. Phraya
3. Phra
4. Luang
5. Khun
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. xviii)
levels. "Ranks and titles were conferred on the bureaucratic and military nobility until the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, a rank and title usually being associated with an office. The chaophraya were highest on the list, the equivalents of cabinet ministers, generals, and the governors of the most important provincial cities. On a descending scale came phraya, phra, luang, and khun."
[1]
Presumably the king should be added to this hierarchy--RA’s guess.
1. King
2. Chaophraya
3. Phraya
4. Phra
5. Luang
6. Khun
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, p. xviii)
"Theravada, the way of the elder, differs from other strains of Buddhism in the prime position accorded to the monk and monastic practice. The duty of the Sangha or monkhood is to preserve the thamma or teachings of the Buddha by adhering strictly to the winaya or monastic code. Some monks study the texts, preserve them by recopying, and preach their contents to the laity. Other monks exemplify the teachings by living an imitation of the Buddha’s own life, gaining insight through ascetic rigour and meditation." [1]
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 19)
"Contemporary European accounts also sometimes refer to what appear to be highly organized command hierarchies. The Siamese army command in the 1680s, for example, was described by Gervaise as consisting of a ’commander-in-chief, a deputy general, several captains with their lieutenants and some subalterns.’ In actuality, members of the nobility through ad hoc appointments led Southeast Asian armies. These men were usually personal favorites of the ruler or one of his relatives, or were outlying lords obligated to bring local levies to participate in campaigns. One reason for this was the concern that otherwise a regular officer class on a permanent footing would become part of the court and ministerial politics that plagued early modern Southeast Asian states." [1]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 237)
"The administration was divided into four main sections. The first looked after the palace and capital including collecting rice from the royal land, guarding the royal person, keeping the peace, running the royal household, and adjudicating disputes in the capital and the core kingdom (ratchathani). The second looked after military affairs, and managed relations with the outlying great cities and tributary states. The third carried out royal trade, oversaw the foreign communities, and looked after the main treasury. The fourth contained the Brahmans who care of ritual, astrology, and record keeping" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 15)
"While other kings simply rendered judicial decisions in accord with their knowledge of [Buddhist] Dharma, the kings of Ayudhya issued real legislation, formal codes of civil and criminal law--law that by definition was mutable, temporal, and changeable. To Ramathibodi I are attributed various titles of Ayudhya’s law, including the Law of Evidence, the Law of Offences against the Government, the Law of Receiving Plaints, the Law of Abduction, the Law on Offences against the People, the Law concerning Robbery, and the Law of Husband and Wife" [1] . This refers to the early phase of Ayutthaya, but there is nothing to indicate that late-phase Ayutthaya jettisoned their legal traditions.
[1]: (Wyatt 1984, pp. 71-72)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "Besides [the Ayutthaya equivalent of a Supreme Court], there are still several courts of justice, as that of oya Berckelangh, who is attorney to the court and judge for all foreigners, further opraa Mathip Mamontry, who is chief of the court where all civil questions and all ordinary cases are pleaded and decided; oya Syserputh is permanent chief of the court where all secret and uncertain cases, criminal and civil are treated and decided by ordeal." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, p. 70)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "for the use of the common people, small shells are used, which come from Manilla and Borneo. 600 to 700 of these are worth one foeang, and the daily provisions and other little necessaries are paid with them. With 5 to 20 of these shells, or even with less, the people may buy on the market sufficient supplies for one day." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, p. 96)
"The muang fai irrigation system was used on fast flowing streams up to twenty metres in width, across which weirs elevated water by up to two or more metres. The fai held back water which was directed to major and minor canals known as muang in which gates, tang, controlled flow rates. Where a muang could be constructed by diverting water from a river, no fai was needed. Constructed from bamboo and woodern stakes driven into the river bed against which rocks, poles and sand were placed, the fai allowed water to pass through and over the barrier while restricting the rate of flow and thus raising the water level." [1]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 113)
Falvey [1] writes of "the construction of the first storage irrigation system in 1633 in Ayutthaya, an echo of the Khmer storage barai". "Each water-based feature fulfilled several functions. Barays provided agricultural and domestic water, and fish and plant foods. Canals channeled water for public sanitation, and transport arteries. Embankments and dikes were usually oriented east-west following the contours and acted both as levees ti control floods and elevated causeways for roads. Moats surrounding temples, monuments, and inhabited areas also fulfilled several functions: they served as sacred boundaries, they were a source of domestic water and food, and they provided fill for foundations to raise the level of the terrain for drainage and protection. Access to domestic water was provided by tanks and basins dug into the water table.’ [2]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 129)
[2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.25)
Falvey [1] writes of "the construction of the first storage irrigation system in 1633 in Ayutthaya, an echo of the Khmer storage barai". "Each water-based feature fulfilled several functions. Barays provided agricultural and domestic water, and fish and plant foods. Canals channeled water for public sanitation, and transport arteries. Embankments and dikes were usually oriented east-west following the contours and acted both as levees ti control floods and elevated causeways for roads. Moats surrounding temples, monuments, and inhabited areas also fulfilled several functions: they served as sacred boundaries, they were a source of domestic water and food, and they provided fill for foundations to raise the level of the terrain for drainage and protection. Access to domestic water was provided by tanks and basins dug into the water table.’ [2]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 129)
[2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.25)
"Thai has a high degree of consistency in mapping between phonemes and graphemes but there are multigrapheme to phoneme correspondences for some consonants [...] In addition, there is a change in grapheme-phoneme correspondences of consonants when they occur in final position. [...] In addition, there are orthographic class-change clusters, in which the first consonant of the cluster,  or  is silent, and is used to change the class of consonant to a high or middle class expression with a corresponding change in tone [...] Thai does have additional irregularities, which include silent consonants and vowels that are not pronounced" [1] .
[1]: (Winskel 2010, p. 1023)
"As the records of astrologers, the chotmaihet hon display an overriding interest in the movements of the planets, and in significant, as well as unusual or unpredictable celestial and earthly events. Entries in the chotmaihet hon are always preceded by a set of numbers indicating the day, lunar date and year of occurrence. The regular motions of the planets were used by the astrologers to establish a system of time-keeping that has been regarded as Siam’s most sophisticated form of temporal measurement. Those responsible for the crafting of the chotmaihet hon were the inheritors and custodians of this complex system. Reflecting their concern with the timing of events, the chotmaihet hon have been known as both calendars and as diaries of the Court Astrologers" [1] "During his restoration of Wat Phrachettuphon (Wat Pho), started in the year of the python, 1832, King Rama III ensured this continuity for many generations to come, by having all available knowledge of the finest quality in the fields of art, letters, technical skills, medicine, and other disciplines engraved on stone plaques and fixed to the walls of the buildings of this Royal wat (temple), so that it would be accessible to all. The inscriptions on medicine at Wat Pho include hundreds of ancient texts as well as dozens of illustrated diagrams of the human body showing the points on the body used in the practice of Thai massage, and verses describing exercises demonstrated by statues of yogis performing them." [2]
[1]: (Hodges 1999, p. 34)
[2]: (Mulholland 1979, pp. 82-83)
Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
Inferred from the fact that, a few years after the collapse of Ayutthaya, when its successor polity, Rattanakosin, was founded, "[a]ll surviving manuscripts were sought out and compiled into recensions of laws, histories, religious texts, and manuals on the practice of every aspect of government" [1] .
[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, p. 27)
"Under King Narai, astrology found a new use in the creation a new style of writing Thai history. From the fifteenth century up to then, tamnan (legend) was the dominant form of history writing. It blends the travels of Buddha through time and across continents with local events without placing them in a chronological framework. In 1681, at King Narai’s behest, Phra Horathibodi, now composed a history which presented events using the lunar calendar to provide ’precise temporal context’. The result was the Luang Prasoet Chronicle, the first of the phongsawadan (dynastic history) genre, which related the history of Ayutthaya from 1324 to 1605, in which humans (the Kings) stand central, instead of Buddha" [1] .
[1]: (Ruangslip 2007, p. 146)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "for the use of the common people, small shells are used, which come from Manilla and Borneo. 600 to 700 of these are worth one foeang, and the daily provisions and other little necessaries are paid with them. With 5 to 20 of these shells, or even with less, the people may buy on the market sufficient supplies for one day." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, p. 96)
"Sudden conflagrations were reported to have consumed 800 houses in Aceh in 1602 and 8000 in 1688; 1260 in Makassar in 1614, and 10,000 in Ayutthaya in 1545, while most of Pattani was burned during a revolt in 1613. For European and Chinese merchants this was a source of endless anxiety, but Southeast Asians appear to have accepted the essential impermanence of their houses, and to have kept what wealth they had in removable gold, jewellery and cloth. After a fire, whole sections of the city would be rebuilt in a matter of three or four days." [1]
[1]: (Tarling 1993, p. 476)
According to a seventeenth-century Dutch source, "The Siamese money is made of very fine silver, has the proper weight, is cast in round shape and is minted with the king’s seal. The common people are very curious about such seals, so that one has great trouble in paying it out, for out of ten pieces they sometimes do not want to take a single one, not because the silver alloy is not good, but because the seal of the king is not according to the rule. There are three kinds of coins, namely ticals, maas, and foeanghs, which in Netherlands money are worth 30, 7 1/2, and 3 3/4 stuiver. Usually the Siamese make their accounts in catties of silver, each of which is worth 20 tayls of 6 guilders, or 48 reals of 50 stuiver each. Each tayl is worth 4 ticals, each tical 4 maas or 8 foeangs. Only these coins are used in trade and for payment." [1]
[1]: (Van Ravenswaay 1910, pp. 95-96)
Inferred from the fact that these are not mentioned in Van Dongen’s detailed lists of all the types of "money" circulating in Thailand in the Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin periods.
"The inland mail service of the Thai Government in its state up to the middle of the XIX century must be looked at as originating with the administrative reforms carried out by King Trailok (1448-1488), who created five civil ministries. One of these particularly cared for the transportation of government letters." [1] However, it was probably quite a simple service: the Court had no communications outside the country until King Mongkut started a voluminous correspondence with European countries, and an internal mail only started in Bangkok in 1881 [2] .
[1]: (Lindenberg 1944, p.78)
[2]: (http://www.sandafayre.com/stampatlas/thailandsiam.html)
"Aside from occasional exceptions, [...] stone fortifications do not appear to have been favored after the classical period. [...] Building stone walls was time-consuming and probably expensive. The stone was difficult to procure and to work, whereas brick was much more readily produced. a transition from stone to brick in temple building from the classical period into the early modern period was thus accompanied by the same general shift in fortification building." [1]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 79)
"Aside from occasional exceptions, [...] stone fortifications do not appear to have been favored after the classical period. [...] Building stone walls was time-consuming and probably expensive. The stone was difficult to procure and to work, whereas brick was much more readily produced. a transition from stone to brick in temple building from the classical period into the early modern period was thus accompanied by the same general shift in fortification building." [1]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 79)
No references in the literature. Polity expert Charles Higham "I dont think there was ever a transition to steel but will ask the iron expert, Oliver Pryce for his view." (pers. comm. with Harvey Whitehouse 04/08/2017)
Earlier polities used bronze military technology, so this polity probably used copper too.
Tension siege engines do not feature among the "personal weapons" mentioned in Charney’s [1] comprehensive summary of Southeast Asian military technology and organisation between the early modern period and the nineteenth century, or indeed in his descriptions of sieges where the Thai were the attackers. However, previous polity did have tension siege engines.
[1]: (Charney 2004)
Tension siege engines do not feature among the "personal weapons" mentioned in Charney’s [1] comprehensive summary of Southeast Asian military technology and organisation between the early modern period and the nineteenth century, or indeed in his descriptions of sieges where the Thai were the attackers. However, previous polity did have sling siege engines.
[1]: (Charney 2004)
Shields "were commonplace among the Burmese, Siamese, Javanese [...] and almost every other Southeast Asian society for which we have evidence throughout the early modern period" [1] "In the 1680s, Siamese levies made use of leather shields." [2]
[1]: (Charney 2004, p. 39)
[2]: (Charney 2004, p. 40)
’The differing understandings of what the tributary relationship entailed are evident in an incident in October 1592 when King Narasuan of Ayutthaya offered Siamese naval assistance to the Ming court in its struggle to contain the depredations of Japanese pirates. The offer was refused, for from the Chinese point of view it would have been demeaning, and an admission of Chinese weakness, to have accepted. In the mandala world of Southeast Asia, however, it was usual for an ally to contribute military assistance in time of war. Narasuan may have hoped for some quid pro quo in his own conflict with the Burmese, but his offer, and the Ming refusal, point to essential differences in worldview.’ [1]
[1]: (Stuart-Fox 2003, p. 34)