Abstract:
Tin deposits in southern Thailand have been mined from ancient times and continued up until the present. Looking from the viewpoint of economic development, tin industry constitutes the main basis for economic activities. Consequently, changes that occur in the mining industry often have certain effects on the economic system of the South. This thesis concentrates its study on the growth of tin mining industry in the southern peninsula from 1868 to 1931. The period covers the beginning of King Chulalongkorns reign when the rapid increase in tin production was strongly felt down to the year Thailand became member of the Tin Restriction Scheme in 1931. The thesis also tries to analyze the impact that the growth of tin mining had on the economic change of the South during that period. Problems and accomplishment created by economic change are thoroughly studied in order to show the effect of the process of industrial development on the economic system of southern Thailand. The first chapter studies the general situation of the mining industry at present. The importance of tin to men and the important place of mining industry as a main economic sector to national economy are pointed out. The second chapter discusses the process of mining development, emphasizing the change of the made of production. The period of development under discussion is divided into two the first part, between 1868 to 1910, shows that the growth of mining industry was slow owing to the lack of proper means of production and efficiency; the second part, between 1911 to 1931, shows some development in both the means of production and efficiency causing a rapid growth in the industry. Moreover, this chapter adds an analysis on the means of tin production such as concession, capital, labour and mining technique in order to show how these factors contribute to the growth of mining industry in different periods. The third chapter studies the role of the people involved in the mining industry. It is found that foreigners like the Chinese and the Westerners played a very important role in developing tin mining business. They were people who introduced new investment, mining technique and workers. The government played a minor supporting role in reviewing the concession rule making it correspond to the existing mining law. Foreign monopoly of mining industry, without the participation of the local people, had a major effect on the benefits of the mining industry, causing mal-distribution of mining income, and effected the whole economic system with a subsequent impact on the economic change of Southern Thailand. The last chapter analyses the effect of mining expansion on economic change in Southern Thailand. The growth of tin mining industry created export expansion and money economy. The whole process caused economic growth in this region. Since the mining business was totally in the hand of foreigners who constituted a new class of southern society, almost all income and profit gained were sent abroad. Thus, the benefit resulted from the mining industrial growth was not distributed among the whole economic system. Tin production as commodity product for export caused no economic diversity. The change of both economic and political nature was limited to only the people who were directly connected with this new branch of the economy. It is obvious that the mining industry was not a branch of Thai economy that contributed to the total economic development. Economic change created by the tin mining sector was limited to only those economic activities related to tin production. This thesis tried to point out the failure of proper distribution of benefit resulted from the growth of this new kind of economic activity. Thus, its growth and expansion failed to affect the whole economic system. This led to the emergence of a dualistic economy. Social and economic differences between localities which resulted from this new growth, economic activity which still remained primitive, economic and social units were clearly seen and the unequal distribution of the whole economic and social problems of both urban and rural areas.