Abstract:
After the Bow ring treaty of 1855, land became property of high value; commerce became free-trade and rice became a chief export of the country. The expansion of trade led to the development of commerce in Bangkok proper and its outskirt in Monthon Krungthep. Land along banks of newly dug canals around Bangkok were developed for agricultural purpose and utilized by both government and private individual. Thai citizens, foreign residents, members of royal families and civil servants all pre-empted land in large quantity that the government had to promulgate the Act of Reformed Title-Deeds of 1901 to put an end to disputes arising from pre-emption. This thesis aimed at making an analysis of the cause of the promulgation of the Act of Reformed Title-Deeds which was due to disputes over the land ownership among Thai citizens and between Thai citizens and foreign residents. Analysis of the increased revenue from land tax, and the impact of the Act on royal lands, monastery lands, citizens land and foreign residents lands was also made. The studies revealed that the Act of Title-Deeds not only decreased the disputes but also increased revenue from land tax. Due to needs to own Title-Deeds, foreign residents as well as Christian clergy consented to pay tax, and agreed to accept the jurisdiction of the International Courts. This was regarded as the first step to the abolition of the remaining extraterritoriality by which Thailand had recovered full sovereignty in 1938 . Though the government earned relatively considerable income from land tax, the government did not succeed in amendment of the Act of land tax aiming at tax collection according to the real value of estates and abolition of unfair taxes on riceland and orchard. The abortive plan on tax amendment was done in anticipation of relinguishment of the gambling farms and opium revenue. Failure in the land tax amendment forced the government to keep riceland and orchard taxes as a source of income. The amendment of the Act of Land Tax was slowly proceeded and delayed until the Revolution of 1932.