Social and economic patterns of landlord-tenant relationships in the Chao Phraya Delta, Thailand: An historical perspective

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 517-543

  Molle, François ^a,b  

^a INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT   (France)

^b INTERNATIONAL WATER MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE   (Sri Lanka)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; LAND TENURE; LANDOWNERSHIP; MARKET SYSTEM; PROPERTY MARKET; RENT CONTROL; SOCIAL SEGREGATION; SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONS;

ASIA; CENTRAL REGION [THAILAND]; CHAO PHRAYA DELTA; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; THAILAND;

EID: 33845993239     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: 14740680     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S002246340200036X     Document Type: Review

References (85)

1. Robert E. Elson, The End of the Peasantry in Southeast Asia: A Social and Economic History of Peasant Livelihood, 1800-1990s (Canberra: Australian National University, 1997).
2. François Molle and Thippawal Srijantr, 'Between Concentration and Fragmentation: The Resilience of the Land System in the Chao Phraya Delta', in Thailand's Rice Bowl: Perspectives on Social and Agricultural Change in the Chao Phraya Delta, ed. François Molle and Thippawal Srijantr (Bangkok: White Lotus, forthcoming).
3. General studies of the topic include James C. Ingram, Economic Change in Thailand 1850-1970, 2nd edn (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971);
4. Somphop Manarangsan, Economic Development of Thailand, 1850-1950: Response to the Challenge of the World Economy (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Institute of Asian Studies, 1989);
5. David Feeny, The Political Economy of Productivity, Thai Agricultural Development, 1880-1975 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Asian Studies Monographs, 1982);
6. David B. Johnston, 'Rural Society and the Rice Economy in Thailand: 1880-1930' (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1975);
7. and Thailand: A Rice-Growing Society, ed. Yoneo Ishii (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1978).
8. The rest of the rice frontier can be termed a 'silent frontier', as little information is available on the process of its expansion. Historical data focus on the East Bank, where extensive disputes challenged the interests of the nobility. This 'Rangsit bias' is probably responsible for a distorted vision of agricultural development in the delta.
9. Takashi Tomosugi, 'The Land System in Central Thailand', Developing Economies, 7, 3 (1969): 303.
10. See also the discussion in P.C. Wagstaff, Problems Associated with Rural Land Tenure in Thailand (Bangkok, United States Operation Mission, 1970);
11. Robert E. Ramsson, 'Closing Frontiers, Farmland Tenancy, and their Relation: A Case Study of Thailand 1937-1973' (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 1977);
12. Steven Piker, Sources of Stability and Instability in Rural Thai Society (Swarthmore, PA: Swarthmore College, 1967).
13. Andrew Turton, 'The Situation in the Thai Countryside', in Thailand, Roots of Conflict, ed. Andrew Turton et al. (Nottingham: Spokesman Books, 1978), pp. 104-42;
14. Witayakorn Chiengkul, The Effects of Capitalist Penetration on the Transformation of the Agrarian Structure in the Central Region of Thailand, 1960-1980 (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University, 1983);
15. Mike Douglass, Regional Integration on the Capitalist Periphery: The Central Plains of Thailand (The Hague: Institute of Social Studies Research Report Series, 1984).
16. Keijiro Otsuka and Yujiro Hayami, 'Theories of Share Tenancy: A Critical Survey', Economic Development and Cultural Change, 37 (1988): 31-68.
17. 'Sharecropping tends to be regarded as an interesting puzzle by neoclassical economists and as an oppressive form of exploitation by some Marxian economists'; Frank Ellis, Peasant Economics: Farm Households and Agrarian Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 141-2. Ellis shows how conclusions regarding economic efficiency differ widely depending on whose logic (the tenant's or the owner's) prevails, what is the underlying rationality, and whether or not markets are competitive.
18. J. Homan van der Heide, General Report on Irrigation and Drainage in the Lower Menam Valley (Bangkok: Ministry of Agriculture, 1903), p. 30.
19. Jacques Amyot, Village Ayutthaya: Social and Economic Conditions of a Rural Population in Central Thailand (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute, 1976), p. 104.
20. Otsuki and Hayami, 'Theories of Share Tenancy'.
21. Barend J. Terwiel, 'Development by Fits and Starts: The Case of Baan Wat Saancaw', in Seven Probes in Rural South East Asia: Socio-Economic and Anthropological, ed. Barend J. Terwiel (Bihar: South East Asian Review Office, 1979), pp. 25-48;
22. Praipol Koomsup and Boonchuai Sreecomporn, Land Tenure, Farm Size and Farm Productivity: A Case Study of the Mae Klong Area (Bangkok: Thai Khadi Institute, Thammasat University, 1985), p. 112.
23. National Statistics Office Agricultural Census of Thailand: 1993/Sammano Kankaset Pho. So. 2536 (Bangkok: National Statistics Office, 1995).
24. François Molle and Thippawan Srijantr, Agrarian Change and the Land System in the Chao Phraya Delta (Bangkok: Kasetsart University, DORAS Center Research Report, 1999).
25. Prince Burachat, 'Socio-Economic Impact of the Great Depression on Thai Farmers' 1932 letter to Chao Phraya Mahitorn, translated in The Political Economy of Siam, 1910-1932, ed. Chatthip Nartsupha et al. (Bangkok: The Social Sciences Association of Thailand, 1981), p. 209.
26. See Tomosugi, 'Land System',
27. and Akira Takahashi, 'Thailand: Grooving Land Problems', in Rural Employment and Land Reform Policy, ed. Z. Ahmad (Geneva: ILO, 1976), pp. 77-120
28. (cited in Douglass, Regional Integration, p. 92).
29. David P. Gisselquist, 'A History of Contractual Relations in a Thai Rice Growing Village' (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1976), pp. 160-1.
30. Subvattana Thaveesilp, 'Kanphalit lae kankha khao nai Phak Klang tangtae ratchasamai Phrabatsomdet Phrachulachomklao Chaoyuhua Ratchakan thi 5 chontheung ratchasamai Phrabatsomdet Phrapokklao Chaoyuhua Ratchakan thi 7 [Rice production and rice trade in Central Thailand from the reign of King Rama V to the reign of King Rama VII]' (Ph.D. diss., Chulalongkorn University. 1978), p. 107:
31. Lucien M. Hanks, Rice and Man: Agricultural Ecology in Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 1972), p.99.
32. See Steven Piker, A Peasant Community in Changing Thailand (Tempe: Arizona State University, 1983);
33. references to 1909 and 1930 are from Subvattana, 'Kanphalit lae kankha khao', p. 108,
34. and Carle C. Zimmerman, Siam: Rural Economic Survey: 1930-31 (Bangkok: Bangkok Times Press, 1931) respectively.
35. National Statistics Office, Agricultural Census of Thailand: 1978/Sammano Kankaset Pho. So. 2521 (Bangkok: National Statistics Office, 1980).
36. See Gisselquist, 'History of Contractual Relations', pp. 160-1, on the 1970s.
37. Tomosugi, 'Land System', p. 303 (1954 data);
38. Amyot, Village Ayutthaya, p. 100 (1969 data);
39. figures are from Chaiyong Chuchat et al., Raingan setthakit thidin reuang khwamsamphan rawang kantheukhrong thidin kap phawa kanphalit khong, chaona nai 5 changwat Phak Klang Pho. So. 2507 [Economic report on the relationship between land holding and production conditions of the farmer in 5 Central provinces, 1964] (Bangkok: Department of Land Development, 1965) (henceforth 5 changwat), p. 62;
40. figures are from Chaiyong Chuchat et al., Khwamsamphan rawang kantheukhrong thidin kap phawa kanphalit khong chaona nai 11 changwat Phak Klang Pho. So. 2508 [Relationship between land holding and production conditions of the farmer in 11 Central provinces, 1965] (Bangkok: Department of Land Development, 1969) (henceforth 11 changwat), p. 57.
41. Praipol and Boonchuai, Land Tenure (Mae Klong);
42. Department of Land Development, Report of the Land Tenure Survey, Phanom Thuam Irrigation Project (Bangkok: Department of Land Development, 1978) (Nakhon Fathom),
43. and idem., Report of the Land Tenure Survey, Don Chedi Irrigation Project (Bangkok: Department of Land Development, 1978).
44. François Molle et al., The Impact of the Access to Irrigation Water on the Evolution of Farming Systems: A Case Study of 3 Villages in the Chao Phraya Delta (Bangkok: Kasetsart University, DORAS Center Research Report, 2001).
45. See Chaiyong et al., 5 changwat, p. 62,
46. and 11 changwat, p. 57;
47. Department of Land Development, Report of the Land Tenure Survey, Don Chedi,
48. and Chaiyong et al., Report of the Land Tenure Survey, Nakhorn Chum Irrigation Project (Bangkok: Department of Land Development, 1978).
49. Chaiyong et al., 11 changwat, p. 60.
50. James Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976).
51. Tomosugi, 'Land System', p. 305.
52. Ibid., p. 306;
53. data from Chaiyong et al., 5 changwat, p. 64
54. and 11 changwat, p. 60.
55. Mark Cleary and Peter Eaton, Tradition and Reform: Land Tenure and Rural Development in Southeast Asia (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1996).
56. Chaiyong et al., 5 changwat, p. 56.
57. Jeremy Kemp, Hua Kok: Social Organization in North-Central Thailand (Canterbury: University of Kent at Canterbury, CSAC Monograph, 1992), p. 124.
58. On Mae Klong, see Praipol and Boonchuai, Land Tenure,
59. other studies include Shigeharu Tanabe, 'Rice Growing Technology and Land Tenure in the Chao Phraya Delta: A Case Study in Phakthan, Singburi Province', in A Comparative Study of Paddy-Growing Communities in Southeast Asia and Japan, ed. Masuo Kuchiba and Leslie Bauzon (Kyoto: Ryukoku University. Toyota Foundation, 1978), pp. 1-39;
60. R. Visser, 'Aspects of Social and Economic Change in a Village in the Central Plain of Thailand', paper presented at the Thai-European Seminar on Social Change in Contemporary Thailand, University of Amsterdam, 1980;
61. Pascale Phelinas, 'Progression du front pionnier et évolution des modalités d'accès à la terre en Thaïlande' (mimeographed paper from Société Française d'Économic Rurale, 1993);
62. Akimi Fujimoto and Toshiro Matsuda, A Study of Rice Productivity and Rural Society in Three Thai Villages (Tokyo: Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1987);
63. and Molle et al., Impact of the Access.
64. Gisselquist, 'History of Contractual Relations', p. 163.
65. Visser, 'Aspects of Social and Economic Change'.
66. See Kamol Janlekha, 'A Study of a Rice Growing Village in Central Thailand' (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1955);
67. L.D. Stifel, 'Patterns of Landownership in Central Thailand during the Twentieth Century', Journal of the Siatn Society, 64 (1976): 237-74;
68. Yongyuth Chalamwong and Gershon Feder, Landownership Security and Land Vaines in Rural Thailand (Washington, DC: World Bank Staff Working Paper, 1986); and Phelinas, 'Progression du front pionnier'.
69. Shigeharu Tanabe, Ecology and Practical Technology: Peasant Farming Systems in Thailand (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1994).
70. For more details on the comparison of these villages, see François Molle et al., 'Balance and Imbalances in Village Economy: Access to Irrigation Water and Farming Systems in the Chao Phraya Delta', paper presented to the 8th Thai Studies Conference, Nakhon Phanom, 9-12 January 2002.
71. Almost all documents relative to land tenure problems mention this point without questioning it. See, for example, Zimmerman, Siatn: Rural Economic Survey,
72. Witayakorn, Effects of Capitalist Penetration;
73. Turton, 'Situation in the Thai Countryside';
74. and Friedrich Fuhs and Jan Vingerhoets, Rural Manpower, Rural Institutions and Rural Employment in Thailand (Bangkok: National Economic Development Board, 1972).
75. Fujimoto and Matsuda, Study of Rice Productivity, p. 33.
76. Kemp, Hua Kok, p. 125. To some extent, this also holds true for borrowing among members of a village or community. Few individuals default because 'non-repayment precludes additional loan and results eventually in the person being socially ostracized'
77. (Gisselquist, 'History of Contractual Relations', p. 212).
78. Amyot also stresses that 'farmers tend to have stable relationships based on friendship and trust with specific individuals in their various roles and these relationships tend to be highly personalised' (Village Ayutthaya, p. 159).
79. Gisselquist, 'History of Contractual Relations';
80. Amyot, Village Ayutthaya;
81. Charles B. Mehl, If There Was No Land to Clear Anywhere? Social and Cultural Aspects of Land Inheritance and Transactions in Rural Thailand (Washington, DC: World Bank Agricultural and Rural Development Research Unit Discussion Paper, 1986);
82. and Howard Kaufman, Bangkhuad: A Community Study in Thailand (Locust Valley, NY: Augustin, 1960). During the author's fieldwork, when asked what would happen if some landowner should displace a tenant to give the land to another one at a higher price, villagers answered that the landowner would be disgraced in front of the village and that 'should the new tenant belong to another village, for sure he would not dare come to harvest the plot...'
83. Yujiro Hayami and Masao Kikuchi, Asian Village Economy at the Crossroads: An Economic Approach to Institutional Change (Tokyo and Baltimore: University of Tokyo Press and Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), p. 17.
84. Naruemon Bunjongjit, 'Landowner-Labour Relationships in a District of Rural Central Thailand', Journal of Social Sciences Research, 10, 1-2 (1987): 98-115. It is worth noting that absentee ownership is not necessarily an obstacle to the spread of intensive activities requiring transformation of the land, as shown by shrimp farming in Chachoengsao province or Bang Len district in Nakhon Pathom. The year-by-year stipulation is said to be a consequence of the restriction imposed on contracts of a longer duration: farmers have the right to farm the land for another six years after the landlord announces his or her desire to get the land back. To evade this constraint, they prefer to establish year-to-year contracts.
85. Amyot, Village Ayutthaya, p. 101.