King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910) is given credit for preventing the colonization of Thailand, for establishing its modern civil service, and for abolishing slavery. He also introduced cabinet government and created a standing army. During this period, free-trade policies promoted the expansion of agricultural exports but did not produce rapid economic growth, and there was virtually no structural change (Warr and Bhanupong 1996, 9). Agricultural exports were the main source of both foreign exchange and government revenue. Agricultural growth was not driven by improved productivity but by expansion of the area of land under cultivation (Ammar, Suthad, and Direk 1993 in Warr and Bhanupong 1996, 9). Land remained abundant until the 1960s. Those reforms and the country’s pragmatism helped to preserve Thailand’s independence: in 1917 the Kingdom entered the First World War on the side of the allies, while in the Second World War it sided with Japan.