TJSEAS 121
Additionally, in contrast with the contents of the traditional Siamese historical
description about the same period, which emphasizes the scenes of catastrophe in
recounting battles with Burma, our study revealed outstandingly intensified human
exchange between Thonburi and Guangzhou in busy seaborne traffic after the fall of
Ayutthaya than former ages. These human networks offered the channels to collect
political information of China to Siam, which worked most effectively when Siam
started to secede from the Chinese tributary system during the mid 18th century.
Sometimes, the sphere of activities of these human interactions, exceeded the
framework of nations. Thus, further effort to enlarge the range of observation from
bilateral state-to-state relationship to interregional relationship among Southeast and
East Asia is needed. This point of view would be helpful when one tries to draw a
convincing and vivid image of many-sided characteristics of the maritime networks of
the regions of which Siam was a part during the Thonburi and early Rattanakosin
periods.156
156 The significance of approaching the history of