Asia
The Mandala (Southeast Asian history) model for describing the patterns of diffuse political power in early Southeast Asian history, originated by O. W. Wolters 1982, does not address economic issues. Following British agent John Crawfurd's Siam mission in 1822, his journal describes a "palace economy" that he attributes to rapacity. His mission was delayed at the port of Pak Nam until he had given a satisfactory account of gifts to the palace, ending with interrogation into minute details with regards to a gift horse, which Crawfurd considered but a good specimen of the indelicacy and rapacity which we afterwards found so characteristic of the Siamese Court and its officers, upon every question of a similar nature. This situation began the change to a market economy with the Bowring Treaty, negotiated by free-trade advocate Sir John Bowring with Siam's modernizing King Mongkut, signed on April 18, 1855.
Read more about this topic: Palace Economy
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