But the economic forces present in Sukhothai were also at work in Ayuthya. The area controlled by Thai kings grew, and manpower was always in short supply. The tension created by Thai kings' need to attract more people to farm the land they controlled while maintaining the theoretical ownership of all land is readily apparent in the Law of the Three Seals. While section 52(22) of the miscellaneous book declared that all land belonged to the king and section 54(23) prohibited the buying and selling of land, section 54 also required officials to encourage people to farm the land and granted a one-year tax holiday for newly cleared lands.
Given the policy of encouraging the people to clear and settle more land implicit in section 54, it seems inevitable that the prohibition of the sale of land would lose its potency. Thus section 61(24) limits to ten years the seller's right of redemption in a sale of land with the right of redemption (khaifak)(25) and section 62(26) prohibits the sale of land by an unlawful occupier. We may infer from these sections that borrowing against and selling land were common practices during the Ayudhya period. Indeed, it is difficult to understand why section 54's prohibition on the sale of land was retained through the years and in the 1805 recension if not in order to keep the law in harmony with the prevailing theory of kingship; many sections of the miscellaneous laws book(27) seem to assume regular buying and selling of land.
Further indications of farmers' gradually increasing rights in the land include punishments stipulated in the Law of the Three Seals for occupation of another 's land (miscellaneous laws book §§ 34-41)(28) and for clearing and farming wild land without first notifying the proper authority (crimes against government book § 47).(29) It seems likely that the purpose of the latter provision was to facilitate collection of land taxes.