Bullet Money and Standard Coinage of 18th Century Siam
AT THE START of the 18th century there were, in Southeast Asia, active and coherent governments in Burma, Siam (the name of the country was changed to Thailand in the 20thcentury), Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Down the Peninsula there were a number of Islamic sultanates. Malacca had been Portuguese but then passed to the Dutch. Out on the islands there were European adventurers from the Netherlands. In India the Mughals were still dominant, but the British were coming on strong, and there were Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Danish ventures in progress.
We talk about historical progress. Here’s some progress for you: in the 18th century, Europe started to grow beyond the until then normal course of political events, which was that heirs to a kingdom fought each other over the succession. In Europe that kind of stopped happening by the 19th century, when wars became national and the monarchs were just along for the ride.
Not so in Southeast Asia. There, the normal fratricidal succession games remained in play, creating intervals of weakness and instability that could be exploited by neighbors.
Wikipedia told me that Ayutthia, the Thai kingdom, had a few decades of peace and prosperity in the early 18th century, then engaged in a series of internal succession wars, not just one. Same thing happened in Burma, where an upstart overthrew the old monarchy. The new Burmese king found himself fascinated by the chaos next door and couldn’t help it, he just had to invade.
That worked out in the very short run.
