Between 1951–6 imports into Thailand (both luxury and capital goods)
almost doubled, with the renewed trading activity boosting the wealth of
Bangkok’s business groups.2 Throughout the 1950s and into the next
decade economic growth was led by services (such as trading and banking),
not exports, as had formerly been the pattern (Chatthip 1968: 40–2). At
the same time, consumer goods imports were steadily rising, largely serving
the as-yet-small urban elite and middle classes, whose consumption levels
increased throughout the decade (Ingram 1971: 226). For example, between
the years 1947 and 1957 the number of private cars in the municipalities
of Bangkok and Thonburi increased by over 650 per cent, representing 87
per cent of all private cars in Thailand (Manop 1973: 17).