page_title: Mongkut
section_title: The Bowring Treaty
hierarchical_section_title: Mongkut / The Bowring Treaty
caption_attribution_description: English: What: The Thai version of the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between the Kingdom of Siam and the British Empire, dated April 18, 1855, also known as the Bowring Treaty, was written on Thai black books prior to being sent to the British Empire to further be affixed with her Great Seal of the Realm. At present, the original is kept at the National Library of Thailand, Bangkok. Where: The image is scanned from: "King Mongkut"&#160;: Photographs from the Reign of King Mongkut. (2004). (Second Edition). Bangkok&#160;: Matichon. ISBN 9743230866. Page 169. ไทย: อะไร: สัญญาทางพระราชไมตรีระหว่างสยามกับอังกฤษ ลงวันที่ ๑๘ เมษายน พ.ศ. ๒๓๙๘ หรือสนธิสัญญาเบาวริง ฉบับภาษาไทย เขียนลงสมุดไทย ก่อนส่งไปจักรวรรดิอังกฤษให้รัฐบาลอังกฤษประทับมหาลัญจกรแห่งพระราชอาณาจักร ปัจจุบัน ต้นฉบับได้รับการเก็บรักษาไว้ ณ หอสมุดแห่งชาติ กรุงเทพมหานคร ประเทศไทย ที่ไหน: ภาพนี้สแกนมาจาก พระจอมเกล้า "King Mongkut" พระเจ้ากรุงสยาม. (๒๕๔๗). (พิมพ์ครั้งที่สอง). กรุงเทพฯ&#160;: มติชน. ISBN 9743230866. หน้า ๑๖๙.
context_page_description: Mongkut, also known as King Rama IV, reigning title Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, was the fourth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851 to 1868.
  Outside Thailand, he is best known as the king in the 1951 musical and 1956 film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam – in turn based on a 1944 novel by an American missionary about Anna Leonowens' years at his court, from 1862 to 1867.
  Siam first felt the pressure of Western expansionism during his reign. Mongkut embraced Western innovations and initiated the modernization of his country, both in technology and culture—earning him the nickname "The Father of Science and Technology" in Siam.
  Mongkut was also known for appointing his brother, Prince Chutamani, as Second King, crowned in 1851 as King Pinklao. Mongkut assured the country that Pinklao should be respected with equal honor to himself. During Mongkut's reign, the power of the House of Bunnag reached its zenith: It became the most powerful noble family of Siam.
context_section_description: In 1854, John Bowring, the Governor of Hong Kong in the name of Queen Victoria, came to Siam to negotiate a treaty. For the first time Siam had to deal seriously with international laws. Prayurawongse negotiated on the behalf of the Siamese. The result was the Bowring Treaty, which was regarded as an unequal treaty imposed by the British Empire on Siam. The main principle of the treaty was to abolish the Royal Storage (พระคลังสินค้า), which since Ayutthaya's times held the monopoly on foreign trade. The Royal Storage had been the source of Ayutthaya's prosperity as it collected immense taxation on foreign traders, including the taxation according to the width of the galleon and the tithe. Western products had to go through a series of tax barriers to reach Siamese people.
  The Europeans had been attempting to undo this monopoly for a long time but no serious measures had been taken. For Siamese people, trading with foreigners subjected them to severe punishment. The taxation was partially reduced in the Burney Treaty. However, in the world of liberalism of the nineteenth century, such unequal and government-interfered trade was disappearing.
  The abolition of such trade barriers replaced Siamese commerce with free trade. Import taxation was reduced to 3% and could only be collected once. This, of course, was a blow on the national revenue. However, this led to dramatic growth of commercial sectors as common people gained access to foreign trade. People rushed to acquire vast, previously empty fields to grow rice and the competition eventually resulted in the lands ending up in the hands of nobility.
  The Bowring Treaty also had a legal impact. Due to the horror of the Nakorn Bala methods of torture in judicial proceedings, the British chose not to be tried under the Siamese system, securing a grant of extraterritoriality; British subjects in Siam were therefore subject only to British law, while the Siamese in Britain enjoyed no reciprocal privilege.
  In 1856, with the skilled assistance of the French diplomat Albert-Édouard Levieux de Caligny to the court of King Mongkut and the envoy of Charles de Montigny, more treaties were then made with other powers, further undermining national revenue and legal rights. The Bowring treaty proved to be the economic and social revolution of Siam. Mongkut's reign saw immense commercial activities in Siam for the first time, which led to the introduction of coinage in 1860. The first industries in Siam were rice milling and sugar production. Infrastructure was improved; there was a great deal of paving of roads and canal digging – for transport and water reservoirs for plantations.
caption: The Thai language version of the 'Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between the Kingdom of Siam and the British Empire' dated April 18, 1855. Also known as the Bowring Treaty
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:12:25 15:15:51", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6418", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3395"}