The creation of the modern Ministry of Finance in Siam, 1885-1910 (Studies in the economics of East and South-East Asia)

In the late 1880s, King Chulalongkorn of Siam initiated a major programme of internal reform. These reforms - the objectives that were being sought and the success that was achieved - have had a major influence in shaping the character of the modern Thai state. Using Thai-language archival material, this book examines a crucial element in the dismantling of the traditional government structure and the installation of a Western-style administration - the creation of a modern Ministry of Finance. It focuses on the new Ministry's struggle to establish a measure of central control over the kingdom's revenues and the government's expenditures, setting that struggle and its outcome in the context of the aims, and the limitations, of the Chulalongkorn reforms.