Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [11]
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The rise of Ayuthaya was based on the ruler’s ability to recruit an essential labour force and to profit from international trade. Wealth and commercial links gave Ayuthaya particularly advantageous access to Portuguese firearms and mercenaries. The fortified capital city was situated on a small island encircled by rivers.
With 36 kings and five dynasties in a period of 416 years, Ayuthaya’s internal politics was a history of violence. The more absolute the king’s power over people, land and resources, the fiercer the challenge. Grotesquely, royal victims of court manoeuvrings were wrapped up and beaten to death with a sandalwood club (as sandalwood was rare and luxurious), their sacred blood prevented from seeping into the earth.
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Some scholars believe the Ramkhamhaeng inscription is a 19th-century forgery, fabricated to support claims that the Sukhothai region was a historic part of Siam.
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Significantly strengthening the kingdom’s administrative system, King Trailok (who reigned from 1448 to 1488) promulgated the Law of Civil Hierarchy and the Law of Military and Provincial Hierarchies. Together, they clarified the administrative structure with elaborate lists of official posts with specific titles and ranks. They also defined the place and position of individuals within Ayuthaya’s complex hierarchical society. Individual social status was measured in numerical units of sàk·dì·nah – the amount of land in his (virtual) possession. Fines and punishments were proportional to the sàk·dì·nah of the person involved. Ayuthayan society consisted, roughly, of royalty, nobility and commoners. Commoners were prai (freemen) or tâht (slaves). Freemen were assigned to a royal or noble overseer. For six months of each year, they owed labour to the ruling elite, doing personal errands, public works or military service. Despite the clear social hierarchy, social mobility was possible, depending on personal skills, connections (including marriage) and royal favour.
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Between the 13th and 15th centuries, firearms may have been introduced to Southeast Asians first by the Chinese and Arabs and then the Portuguese.
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Ayuthaya’s sphere of influence was reinforced through the frontier towns of Khorat to the east, Kanchanaburi to the west, Phitsanulok to the north, and Nakhon Si Thammarat in the south. Having defeated Angkor in 1431–32, Ayuthaya’s elite adopted Khmer court customs, honorific language and ideas of kingship. While the monarch styled himself as a Khmer devaraja (divine king) rather than Sukhothai’s dhammaraja (righteous king), Ayuthaya continued to pay tribute to the Chinese emperor, who rewarded this ritualistic submission with generous gifts and enviable commercial privileges. The Siamese kingdom also had vassal states which were obliged, under threat, to provide troops and tributary gifts. Among these states were the kingdoms of Songkhla, Cambodia and Pattani. Submission was expressed symbolically in exquisitely crafted silver and golden trees.
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Siam’s first Treatise on Victorious Warfare was composed to guide the armies of King Ramathibodi II in 1498. In 2008 an authentic version of a treatise of the early Bangkok period was recovered in Phetchabun.
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It was an ‘Age of Commerce’ in Southeast Asia. A political and economic centre, Ayuthaya thrived on maritime trade. It was both the royal city and the major port. The river system connected the hinterlands as well. Coming overland or by sea, foreign trade was of great interest. Besides rice, Ayuthaya’s main export was forest products. Its bureaucracy created the Phra Khlang ministry to handle foreign affairs and trade. The ministry held monopolies over selected exports and imports, setting tariffs and prices accordingly. From the 17th century, Ayuthaya’s commercial economy expanded.
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In the 17th century, animal skins were exported to Japan in huge numbers of around 100,000 pieces a year.
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The historic presence in Ayuthaya of many