The Siamese Institutions: Taxes And State Income
The income of the kingdom is diverse in nature. The small tributary kings send traditional gifts in gold or in the commodities of the country to their sovereign. The rice fields pay a variable tax, generally one tical, less than two francs at the present price of silver, per square sên, a measure of forty metres to a side, i.e. about one franc at the rates of that time. With each accession, the land register, summarily revised, is more or less fixed for the duration of the reign. The tenth part of this tax, the only one, more or less, of the kingdom that is not farmed out, is allocated to the provincial mandarins charged with levying it. In order to favour the taking into production of rice fields, the kings of Siam have decided that the digging of a canal will result in obtaining the land over the whole length and stretching on both sides up to a distance of a thousand metres free of charge, with consideration, be it understood, of the rights of neighboring owners. The taxation of plantations, gardens and fruit trees depends on the nature of the cultivation and on the number of trees.
The rights over rice liquor, assessed by furnace and by shop, were already mentioned by de La Loubère. Today, ever more numerous internal monopolies are established, not only on rice liquor and non all the supplies sold in the markets, rice being about the only one excepted, but also on gambling, lotteries, opium, theatres, prostitutes, etc. Numerous abuses are born from the rights of pursuit and arrest of delinquents and smugglers, which have been given to the Chinese farmers.
Another tax is the customs tax levied on all merchandise entering the country or even on the commodities which leave it. The Europeans, in the seventeenth century, called the customs posts by a local name, transcribed as “Tabanque”, a word in which one can still recognise the Cambodian name “Trebêng” which is given to small frames of bamboo fixed on the end of a sticks which serve as signposts at the customs posts.
The tax on barges was already one tical per fathom of length at the time of de La Loubère. Today, the taxes on the local boats and on the junks or foreign ships mooring at the ports of Siam produce an important sum of income. One can also cite the sums from fines and judicial confiscation, the tribute for usage, such as the traditional rights of levy on the inheritances of mandarins, the buy back money for the heavy corvées weighing on the people and finally the trade monopoly of a sizeable part of the exported and even imported goods, the king having been all the time, formerly even more than today being the greatest monopoly builder and trader of his kingdom.
In his capacity as absolute monarch, as eminent proprietor of the country, the sovereign alone disposes of the income of the State of which he consumes the wealth. His royal purse is combined with the administration of the treasury: all the income is brought into it and the payments are only made upon royally sealed mandates or signed by his name. His opulence contrasts with the poverty of the people. In the seventeenth century, Gervaise estimated the annual revenue to be four to five million. The king saved, having very few expenses, barely ever paying but in merchandise for his foreign purchases and he possessed eight or ten warehouses full of rich fabrics, beautiful weapons and urns filled with gold and silver. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the revenues were estimated to be twenty or thirty million. At present, the valuations almost unofficial, approximate in any case, vary between fifty and eighty million francs. But the times are different: the king believes he must spend on public utilities. He creates roads; he maintains a navy, troops, he pays the salaries of the majority of his functionaries.
Reference:
The rights over rice liquor, assessed by furnace and by shop, were already mentioned by de La Loubère. Today, ever more numerous internal monopolies are established, not only on rice liquor and non all the supplies sold in the markets, rice being about the only one excepted, but also on gambling, lotteries, opium, theatres, prostitutes, etc. Numerous abuses are born from the rights of pursuit and arrest of delinquents and smugglers, which have been given to the Chinese farmers.
Another tax is the customs tax levied on all merchandise entering the country or even on the commodities which leave it. The Europeans, in the seventeenth century, called the customs posts by a local name, transcribed as “Tabanque”, a word in which one can still recognise the Cambodian name “Trebêng” which is given to small frames of bamboo fixed on the end of a sticks which serve as signposts at the customs posts.
The tax on barges was already one tical per fathom of length at the time of de La Loubère. Today, the taxes on the local boats and on the junks or foreign ships mooring at the ports of Siam produce an important sum of income. One can also cite the sums from fines and judicial confiscation, the tribute for usage, such as the traditional rights of levy on the inheritances of mandarins, the buy back money for the heavy corvées weighing on the people and finally the trade monopoly of a sizeable part of the exported and even imported goods, the king having been all the time, formerly even more than today being the greatest monopoly builder and trader of his kingdom.
In his capacity as absolute monarch, as eminent proprietor of the country, the sovereign alone disposes of the income of the State of which he consumes the wealth. His royal purse is combined with the administration of the treasury: all the income is brought into it and the payments are only made upon royally sealed mandates or signed by his name. His opulence contrasts with the poverty of the people. In the seventeenth century, Gervaise estimated the annual revenue to be four to five million. The king saved, having very few expenses, barely ever paying but in merchandise for his foreign purchases and he possessed eight or ten warehouses full of rich fabrics, beautiful weapons and urns filled with gold and silver. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the revenues were estimated to be twenty or thirty million. At present, the valuations almost unofficial, approximate in any case, vary between fifty and eighty million francs. But the times are different: the king believes he must spend on public utilities. He creates roads; he maintains a navy, troops, he pays the salaries of the majority of his functionaries.
Reference:
- Etienne Aymonier, Khmer Heritage in Thailand, White Lotus Co., Ltd, Bangkok, 1901, p.50, 51.
