84
R. BRUCE
lost Java and gained Singapore for a reluctant Company, and Malacca followed. Siam was eventually drawn into the picture not for her trade or her position on the way to China
a little
off the route -- but, in fact, because of Kedah and the other northern Malay States.
By 1818 the Chakri dynasty had gained sufficient strength to instigate her vassal Kedah to attack the neighbouring Malay State of Perak. The Siamese army then entered Kedah itself and the Sultan fled to Penang. British merchants there were indignant and called on the Company to intervene, but the Supreme Council in Calcutta considered that "a war with Siam would be an evil of very serious magnitude". Their policy was one of conciliation. "All extension of our territorial possessions and political relations on the side of the Indo-Chinese nations" the Company declared, "... is earnestly to be deprecated and declined as far as the course of events and the force of circumstances permit".
As well as the Malay States there was the Burma question. The restive Burmese had extended their power to Arakan, thus making them neighbours of the British in India. By the eighteen-twenties Britain became involved in war with Burma in the southern part of the country. With the extension of the East India Company's interests to Siam's western and southern borders it became desirable that relations between the Company and Bangkok should be regulated on a peaceful basis. At the same time trading relations should be improved. The bad conditions of trade were described by Raffles as "slavish and humiliating” for English merchants. He gave this account of the trade:
“On arrival in port the most valuable part of the cargo is immediately presented to the King who takes as much as he pleases; the remaining part is chiefly consumed in presents to the courtiers and other great men, while the refuse of the cargo is then permitted to be exposed to sale. The part which is consumed in presents to the great men is entire loss; for that which the King receives he generally returns a present which is seldom adequate to the value of the goods which he has received; but by dint of begging and repeated solicitation this is sometimes increased a little."
To remedy the situation John Crawford was sent to Bangkok by the Governor General of India in 1822.
Page 90
Page 91
84
R. BRUCE
lost Java and gained Singapore for a reluctant Company, and Malacca followed. Siam was eventually drawn into the picture not for her trade or her position on the way to China
a little
off the route -- but, in fact, because of Kedah and the other northern Malay States.
By 1818 the Chakri dynasty had gained sufficient strength to instigate her vassal Kedah to attack the neighbouring Malay State of Perak. The Siamese army then entered Kedah itself and the Sultan fled to Penang. British merchants there were indignant and called on the Company to intervene, but the Supreme Council in Calcutta considered that "a war with Siam would be an evil of very serious magnitude". Their policy was one of conciliation. *All extension of our territorial possessions and political relations on the side of the Indo-Chinese nations" the Company declared, ".... is earnestly to be deprecated and declined as far as the course of events and the force of circumstances permit".
As well as the Malay States there was the Burma question. The restive Burmese had extended their power to Arakan, thus making them neighbours of the British in India. By the eighteen- twenties Britain became involved in war with Burma in the southern part of the country. With the extension of the East India Company's interests to Siam's western and southern borders it became desirable that relations between the Company and Bangkok should be regulated on a peaceful basis. At the same time trading relations should be improved. The bad conditions of trade were described by Raffles as "slavish and humiliating” for English merchants. He gave this account of the trade:
“On arrival in port the most valuable part of the cargo is immediately presented to the King who takes as much as he pleases; the remaining part is chiefly consumed in presents to the courtiers and other great men, while the refuse of the cargo is then permitted to be exposed to sale. The part which is consumed in presents to the great men is entire loss; for that which the King receives he generally returns a present which is seldom adequate to the value of the goods which he has received; but by dint of begging and repeated solicitation this is sometimes increased a little."
To remedy the situation John Crawford was sent to Bangkok by the Governor General of India in 1822.
Page 90Page 91
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