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 overwhelm-
ingly 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), even 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 hold on trade, with the over-
whelming majority of imported and exported goods being processed,
handled and distributed through the city, principally via Sino-Thai busi-
ness 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 govern-
ment (1947-57) enjoyed increasing support from the USA, whose leaders
were intent on building Thailand as 'a bastion of freedom in Southeast
Asia' (cited in Kobkua 1995: 281). The formal US-Thai alliance, together