How did the common man and woman live when Thailand was still called Siam? In 1930, Carle Zimmerman, with the cooperation of the Siamese authorities, carried out an extensive investigation into the living conditions of the rural population in Siam. He ignored the cities.
In particular, he reported on family circumstances and households, earnings and trade, illness and death, and education. Below is a summary of the most important figures and facts. (With a pinch from Chatthip's book)
What preceded 1930
Chatthip's book mentioned below gave for the first time a glimpse into the life of the 'ordinary' Siamese, the villager, and to a large extent avoided the influence of king, nobles, the state and capitalists. They are only discussed to some extent after 1900 and to a greater extent after 1930. Chatthip shows how as far back as the 20se century the greater part of the economy was self-sufficient.
Chatthip quotes the well-known historian Prince Damrong who, with the American Dr. Braddock makes a tour of the Isaan in 1906. They didn't see really rich or really poor people. There was a high degree of cooperation, community spirit and local government. Prince Damrong asked Braddock what he thought about that and Braddock replied 'that it was much like those socialists who caused so much trouble in the West. '
The situation in 1930, general
Zimmerman's general impression was that Siam had a fairly advanced civilization with a competent and strong government and a reasonably well-developed economy, better than that of other countries in Asia. On the other hand, the country was underpopulated with a too high mortality rate and too few technical and financial facilities in the agricultural sector. He found it remarkable that the cultural development was at a fairly high level: every household had a piece of art: beautiful wood carvings, well-woven clothing and attractive plates and jars. Music and stage performances were common.
The study was done in a total of 40 villages in 4 regions: 12 in the North, 8 in the Northeast, 8 in the South and 12 in Central Siam. In each village, 50 families were extensively interviewed and investigated.
Most economic figures came from 1930 because in 1931 the adverse effects of the Great Depression were already felt in Siam. For example, the price of rice, then the most important export product (70%), fell completely.
Households
Households consisted of 5 to 6 people. Almost all households engaged in agriculture, but all farmers also did something else: building, making tools and vehicles, spinning, weaving, fishing and hunting.
In the Central Plain, the farmers cultivated an average of 25 rai of land, in the other regions it was 7 to 10 rai. In this region, 36% of farmers had no land and a lot of it was leased.
In the Central Plain, families owned an average of two water buffalo, in the North 1.5, in the South 0.7 and in the Northeast 2. In addition, there were perhaps 1-2 cattle, 1-2 pigs and four chickens.
In the Central Plain, nearly half of all households had schulden, often for the purchase of land. In the other regions, household debts ranged from 10 to 18 percent, mostly on food purchases and sometimes on gambling debts. It was mostly relatives and villagers who made the loans without charging interest. When merchants provided larger loans, the interest was between 20 and 30 percent.
Economy
Also in 1930, and until the sixties, a large part of the economy was still self-sufficient as in the previous centuries, although trade and an economy based on money continued to expand, especially in the cities, due to the better communication possibilities. This was especially true for the Central Plain, the South and to a lesser extent for the North East and the North. When the railway network had penetrated the North, the Northeast and the South in 1925, the trade in rice in particular increased sharply, where previously only the Central Plain traded a surplus of rice.
De trade was mainly barter between villages and villagers. Only in the Central Plain and in the cities along the railways was there more and increasing trade, also with foreign countries.
The monetary income in the different regions did not differ that much from the current situation. Income per family in the Central Plain was highest at 279 baht, in the Northeast the least at 83 baht, a distribution that we still see today.
Monetary income by region, in baht
| Region | Central plain | North | South | Northeast |
| 297 | 176 | 125 | 83 |
We also looked at the distribution of incomes across five income groups, which still show strong inequality, the highest in the North, then in the Central Plain, while the South and the Northeast showed the least inequality.
Percentages of the total income of all groups, divided by region and income groups
| Region | Central Plain | North | South | Northeast |
| richest one-fifth | 50 | 56 | 43 | 40 |
| second one fifth | 21 | 18 | 21 | 21 |
| third one fifth | 14 | 12 | 16 | 17 |
| fourth one fifth | 10 | 9 | 12 | 13 |
| poorest one-fifth | 5 | 5 | 8 | 9 |
Nutrition
Rice was of course the staple food, glutinous rice in the Northeast and North and plain white rice in the rest of the country. Vegetables and fruit, from the wild or from the garden, were also consumed with most meals. The main source of protein was fish, fresh in a favorable season, but much more often fermented or dried fish. Meat and egg were eaten very moderately, usually only on holidays. The same applies to dairy products.
Health
Only in the cities were there any medical facilities that the majority of the population could not use.
It is striking that the population knew the names and symptoms of the most common syndromes. The figures published by Zimmerman show that 25% of the population suffered from chronic malaria, especially in the North and South and less in the Isan and Central Plains. The same percentage suffered from gastrointestinal diseases and rasmboesia (an often chronic skin inflammation caused by a bacterium related to syphilis). Eight percent had been affected by smallpox at some point, while more than 64 percent had been vaccinated for it. Many people suffered from one or more chronic conditions at the same time.
Disorders due to malnutrition were very rare: only in 0.5% of all examined: most commonly beriberi, rickets (vitamin D deficiency), and scurvy
At almost 50%, malaria was the most important cause of death, especially in the North and South. Various forms of diarrhoea, stillbirth, congenital anomalies, 'old age' and tuberculosis were responsible for between 5 and 10% of the deaths.
The death rate across the whole kingdom was 19 per 1000 inhabitants, but with a considerable difference between the regions, clearly dependent on prosperity.
The Netherlands had a similar mortality rate (25 per 1000) in 1850, which decreased to around 1930 per thousand until 9, while Thailand and the Netherlands now have a similar mortality rate, fluctuating between 7.5 and 8.5 per thousand inhabitants.
Mortality rate per thousand, by region
| Region | Central plain | South | Northeast | North |
| death rate | 14.2 | 14.6 | 20.7 | 22.8 |
Literacy
From about 1920, primary education was compulsory for boys and girls. Zimmerman gives figures for the extent to which people could read and write, and separately the percentages for children. Literacy was highest in the Central Plain at 35 percent and lowest in the Northeast at 13 percent. We do see a nice increase in children.
Percentages who could read and write, by region, for all inhabitants and separately for children
| Read | write | |
| Central Plain | 37 | 35 |
| Same kids | 55 | 54 |
| North | 14 | 13 |
| Same kids | 33 | 33 |
| South | 31 | 28 |
| Same kids | 48 | 45 |
| Northeast | 13 | 12 |
| Same kids | 30 | 29 |
Summary
Zimmerman has many good words for the Siamese people. He finds them intelligent and competent. Their standard of living and development is better than that of neighboring countries.
On the other hand, they live too easily. As a result, the urge to develop further is not very strong. Zimmerman advocates more use of agricultural experts, technology and connection with international trade. This requires an efficient banking system. More agricultural land, with both wet and dry farming, needs to be developed. That indeed succeeded. In 1930, Siam was still 80 percent covered with forest, now it is 20 percent.
In addition, the Siamese die too easily, which leads to a population density that is too low. Zimmerman sees this as a major factor holding back further development. More medical attention at rural level is necessary, he writes. That worked out well: in 1930 Siam had 12 million inhabitants, now Thailand has 70 million inhabitants.
He ends his book with this sentence:
'All it needs is wise direction supported by the fires of national determination.'
"A sensible policy is all that is needed, backed by national resolve."
Sources:
Carle C. Zimmerma, Siam, Rural Economic Survey 1930-1931, White Lotus, 1999, ISBN 974-7534-02-9
Chatthip Nartsupha, The Thai Village Economy in the Past, Silkworm Books, 1999 ISBN 974-7551-09-8 (original Thai edition 1984)
Interesting to see the "good old days" under the magnifying glass of statistics.
Some figures are in line with current preconceptions about the various regions.
Due to the rough division into “fifths”, we can somewhat compare the inequality between the regions, but hardly within the region.
Zimmerman's conclusions are of a kind we don't like to mouth these days.
But all in all very interesting.
Nice contribution.
Even with the knowledge of today, we know that the Isaan simply does not have fertile soil and therefore can never become anything of importance.
The future looks even worse because of salinization that is not being addressed.
Recently, in De Telegraaf and AD, among others, the mosquito was once again put in the spotlight following the publication of the book 'Mosquito' by American history professor Timothy Winegard, published last month. He argues in his book that the mosquito is the greatest mass murderer ever because almost half (52 billion) of all people (108 billion) who have lived on earth have died from the effects of diseases spread by the (females) mosquito. That number matches malaria as the leading cause of death in Siam in 1930. Furthermore, in your story the disease is called 'rasmboesia', a skin inflammation caused by a bacteria related to syphilis. That made me wonder if syphilis itself was a widespread disease and cause of death during that time, because Zimmerman doesn't mention that. It is positive to read that he has many good words for the Siamese and calls them intelligent and competent. I think the black and white photos in your entry are beautiful, the characteristic faces are still typical of many Thai women and men.
Leo, Zimmerman's book is full of tables and statistics. About 180 diseases are mentioned, including syphilis and gonorrhea. They found 10.000 cases of gonorrhea and 30 cases of syphilis out of 10 people examined. Although it is difficult to compare these figures with the current Dutch figures, you can safely say that it is between 6 and 12 times as much as the current figures in the Netherlands. They are not listed among the causes of death.
Dear Tino, thank you for your effort. I had never heard of the disease 'rasmboesia' and, following your article, I looked at photos with the terrible consequences on the internet. A friend of mine worked as an assistant at a dermatologist in The Hague around 1980. According to her, there were relatively many patients in the practice with an STD, mainly gonorrhea, after a holiday in Thailand. You found in Zimmerman's book the finding of 10 cases of syphilis per 10.000 persons. Zimmerman's research was conducted among the rural population, where social control may have been greater than in the cities. It would therefore not surprise me that gonorrhea and syphilis were more common in the city due to visits to prostitution and can certainly be ranked as the cause of death.
STDs were very common in the cities at that time, say 1910-1940, indeed because of prostitution. See:
https://www.thailandblog.nl/geschiedenis/veelwijverij-was-thailand-gewoon-hof-en-bourgeoisie/
'……with some studies showing that 60-89 percent of the male population over the age of 19 and 90 percent of prostitutes had a venereal disease' 'Had' should really be 'had', but probably too much….
Good to read clear figures about the average Thai a century ago. It doesn't seem to get better with the inequality, only worse if we look at news reports and other literature (Unequal Thailand).
The question is of course whether the old figures are correct in terms of income or how to read them.
40-50% belonging to the highest incomes means that people could live normally because of self-sufficiency. From the youth there is a call to go back to normal, but that is going to be difficult because the worldly government is currently set up in such a way that the industrial mafia has a legal say in what we get on our plate.