Post-war expansion: 1945-58
The post-war world and Bangkok-centred development
Thailand entered the post-war period with an economic structure that was unchanged from the pre-war years. The economy relied overwhelmingly on the export of basic commodities (primarily rice but also rubber) produced by a society of rural smallholders who lived and worked in villages largely isolated from the metropolis. Bangkok remained utterly distinct from the rest of the country over which its elites presided. In 1947 the capital dwarfed all other urban centres of the nation (being 20 times the size of the second-largest centre of Chiang Mai) en though the municipalities of Bangkok and Thonburi housed only 781,662 people representing just over 4 per cent of Thailand's population (Donner, 1978 792). Bangkok maintained its traditional h on trade, with the overwhelming majority of imported and exported goods being processed handled and distributed through the city, princ pally via Sino-Thai business concerns.
......................In the early 1950s, the commodities export boom induced by the Korean War boosted Thailand's economy, and particularly Bangkok. American economic assistance to Thailand beginning in 1950 (and supplemented by increasing government expenditure) became significant to growth. Aid was directed towards development projects aiming at resuscitating Bangkok's war-damaged infrastructure (particularly roads and power supply) and expanding and diversifying national economic production. In the context of emerging Cold War hostilities, the second Phibun military-led government (1947-57) enjoyed increasing support from the USA, whose leader ere intent on building Thailand as "a bastion of freedom in Southeast Asia' (cited in Kobkua 1995: 281). The formal US-Thai alliance, together with Thailand's strategic early entry into the United Nations, gave Tha government agencies access to World Bank and UN assistance. Large numbers of young Thais destined for work in high levels of national admin stration received university training overseas (Girling 1981: 96: Muscat 1994: 49-54.
.....................Government expenditure programmes during the second Phibun-led government were directed to improving national income and social welfare in a broad array of areas, from urban housing to irrigation (Kobkua 1995 150-1). Generally uncoordinated, the programmes implicitly favoured ntralisation, having the cumulative effect of consolidating Bangkok's urban primacy and benefiting key economic actors in the capital and urban consumers generally (Muscat 1994 52). Significantly, the first major infrastructure project benefiting from international loans was the development of a new port at Khlong Toei, five miles downriver from the central city. Mooted from the mid-1930s, dredging of the river to create this port area was completed in 1954, significantly enhancing the international importexport capabilities of Bangkok (Porphant 1994: 210-11). In 1955 the government introduced a premium on rice exports (levied on exporters in order to enhance government revenues and stabilise domestic rice prices and provided the government with windfall revenues due to high world commodity prices. The premium allowed the state and private employers to keep salaries and wages low by acting as an income subsidy. In the process, it exacerbated rural urban income disparities. It operated at the expense of rural household because merchants passed on the costs in the form of lower farm-gate purchase prices (Pawadee 1987: 186-90) Combined with the stagnating wage effects of an increasing labour supply in Bangkok, the rice premium (only abolished in the mid-1980s) enhanced the profitability of investment in urban-based manufacturing and service industries, which grew significantly in the following decade (Muscat 1994 75-7; Porphant 1994: 194-8)
หลังสงครามขยาย: 1945-58 หลังสงครามโลกและพัฒนาศูนย์กลางกรุงเทพมหานคร ไทยป้อนรอบระยะเวลาหลังสงคราม มีการโครงสร้างทางเศรษฐกิจที่เปลี่ยนแปลงจากปีก่อนสงคราม เศรษฐกิจที่อาศัยบนพื้นฐานสินค้าโภคภัณฑ์ (หลักข้าว แต่ยาง) ผลิต โดยสมาคม smallholders ชนบทที่อาศัยอยู่ และทำงานในหมู่บ้านส่วนใหญ่แยกต่างหากจากนครส่ง overwhelmingly กรุงเทพมหานครยังคงโคตรแตกต่างจากส่วนเหลือของประเทศที่ร่ำรวยของ presided ใน เมืองหลวง dwarfed อื่น ๆ ศูนย์เมืองของน้ำภายในประเทศ (มี 20 ครั้งขนาดกลางสองที่ใหญ่ที่สุดของเชียงใหม่) ว่าคนเท่า 781,662 แทนเพียงร้อยละ 4 ของประชากรของประเทศไทย (Donner, 1978 792) ห้องพักอำเภอกรุงเทพมหานครและธนบุรี กรุงเทพรักษา h ของดั้งเดิมเกี่ยวกับการค้า โดยส่วนใหญ่สินค้านำเข้า และส่งออกการประมวลผลจัดการ และกระจายผ่านเมือง princ ทั่วโลกสนิทสนมจำกัดผ่านเกี่ยวข้องธุรกิจซิโน-ไทย......................In the early 1950s, the commodities export boom induced by the Korean War boosted Thailand's economy, and particularly Bangkok. American economic assistance to Thailand beginning in 1950 (and supplemented by increasing government expenditure) became significant to growth. Aid was directed towards development projects aiming at resuscitating Bangkok's war-damaged infrastructure (particularly roads and power supply) and expanding and diversifying national economic production. In the context of emerging Cold War hostilities, the second Phibun military-led government (1947-57) enjoyed increasing support from the USA, whose leader ere intent on building Thailand as "a bastion of freedom in Southeast Asia' (cited in Kobkua 1995: 281). The formal US-Thai alliance, together with Thailand's strategic early entry into the United Nations, gave Tha government agencies access to World Bank and UN assistance. Large numbers of young Thais destined for work in high levels of national admin stration received university training overseas (Girling 1981: 96: Muscat 1994: 49-54......................Government expenditure programmes during the second Phibun-led government were directed to improving national income and social welfare in a broad array of areas, from urban housing to irrigation (Kobkua 1995 150-1). Generally uncoordinated, the programmes implicitly favoured ntralisation, having the cumulative effect of consolidating Bangkok's urban primacy and benefiting key economic actors in the capital and urban consumers generally (Muscat 1994 52). Significantly, the first major infrastructure project benefiting from international loans was the development of a new port at Khlong Toei, five miles downriver from the central city. Mooted from the mid-1930s, dredging of the river to create this port area was completed in 1954, significantly enhancing the international importexport capabilities of Bangkok (Porphant 1994: 210-11). In 1955 the government introduced a premium on rice exports (levied on exporters in order to enhance government revenues and stabilise domestic rice prices and provided the government with windfall revenues due to high world commodity prices. The premium allowed the state and private employers to keep salaries and wages low by acting as an income subsidy. In the process, it exacerbated rural urban income disparities. It operated at the expense of rural household because merchants passed on the costs in the form of lower farm-gate purchase prices (Pawadee 1987: 186-90) Combined with the stagnating wage effects of an increasing labour supply in Bangkok, the rice premium (only abolished in the mid-1980s) enhanced the profitability of investment in urban-based manufacturing and service industries, which grew significantly in the following decade (Muscat 1994 75-7; Porphant 1994: 194-8)
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