Bowring Treaty

The Bowring Treaty is the name given to an agreement signed on April 18, 1855 between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam that liberalized foreign trade in Siam.

The Treaty was signed by King Mongkut of Siam and Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong and Britain's envoy.

A previous treaty had been signed between Siam and the United Kingdom in 1826, and the new treaty elaborated and liberalized trade rules and regulationscite encyclopedia
title = Siam | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition | location = London | date = 1911 | url = http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Siam | accessdate = 2007-04-24 ] by creating a new system of imports and exports.

The treaty allowed free trade by foreigners in Bangkok, as foreign trade had previously been subject to heavy royal taxes.cite web | title = Ode to Friendship, Celebrating Singapore - Thailand Relations: Introduction | publisher = National Archives of Singapore | date = 2004 | url = http://www.a2o.com.sg/a2o/public/html/online_exhibit/odetoFriendship/html/Introduction/index.htm | accessdate = 2007-04-24 ] The treaty also allowed the establishment of a British consulate in Bangkok and guaranteed its full extraterritorial powers, and allowed Englishmen to own land in Siam. The regulations in short are:

# British subjects were placed under consular jurisdiction. Thus, for the first time, Siam granted extraterritoriality to foreign aliens.
# British subjects were given the right to trade freely in all seaports, and to reside permanently in Bangkok. They were to be allowed to buy and rent property in the environs of Bangkok; namely, in the area more than four mile from city walls but less than twenty four hours’ journey from the city (calculated at the speed of native boats). British subjects were also to be allowed to travel freely in the interior with passes provided by the consul.
# Measurement duties were abolished and import and export duties fixed.
## The import duty was fixed at 3 percent for all articles, with two exceptions: opium was to be free of duty, but it had to be sold to the opium farmer; and bullion was to be free of duty.
## Articles of export were to be taxed just once, whether the tax was called an inland tax, a transit duty, or an export duty.
# British merchants were to be allowed to buy and sell directly with individual Siamese without interference from any third person.
# The Siamese government reserved the right to prohibit the export of salt, rice, and fish whenever these articles were deemed to be scarce.cite book
last =Ingram | first =James C. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Economic Change in Thailand 1850-1970 | publisher =Stanford University Press | date =1971 | location =California| pages =p.34 | url = | doi = | id = ]

Officially a Treaty of Friendship and Commerce,cite web | title = King Mongkut – the Scholar King at the Crossroad in Thai History | publisher = Government of Thailand Public Relations Department | date = 2004-08-20 | url = http://thailand.prd.go.th/the_royalty_view.php?id=250 | accessdate = 2007-04-24 ] it is nonetheless claimed to be an unequal bilateral contract as Siam was not in a position to negotiate, considering that Britain had demonstrated its military might during the First Opium War with China, thereby discouraging any attempts to prevent Western trade.cite web | title = Impacts of Trade liberalization under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the World Trade Organization: A Case Study of Rice | publisher = Rural Reconstruction and Friends Alumni, Asia Pacific Research Network | date = 2002-12-01 | url = http://www.aprnet.org/index.php?a=show&c=Volume%207%20December%202002&t=journals&i=12 | accessdate = 2007-04-24 ] Siam's fears were only consolidated by the fact that negotiations that had occurred five years earlier between Sir James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak and British envoy, and Siam's King Jessadabodindra had failed, and had led to Brooke threatening Siam with Britain's " Gunboat Policy". The treaty eventually led other foreign powers to sign their own bilateral treaty, based on the rules set by the Bowring Treaty. However, the treaty also ensured that foreign powers would not intervene in Siam's internal affairs and allowed for Siam to remain independent. The Bowring Treaty is now credited for having led to the economic development of Bangkok, as it created a framework in which multilateral trade could operate freely in Southeast Asia, notably between China, Singapore and Siam.

References