Chulalongkorn's internal affairs reform

Rama V first took measures to gradually abolish slavery in Thailand with a history of more than 500 years. According to the law, there were seven kinds of slaves in Thailand at that time, but in fact there were only two types: redeemable slaves and non-redeemable slaves. Some farmers who became debt slaves gradually lost their land and became lifelong slaves. They are the real private property of the owner, and the owner can resell or transfer them to others at will except the right to kill them. If a mother is not a redeemed slave, her children are also slaves. Slaves have to work for their masters all the time except for three months of hard labor for the country every year. During this period, due to the gradual disintegration of natural economy and the gradual development of commodity economy, both urban and rural areas needed a lot of labor, but the slavery and personal attachment of a large number of slaves hindered the formation of the labor market. In order to adapt to this situation, Rama V made up his mind to abolish slavery.

1874, Rama v issued a decree to liberate the children of slaves, stipulating that all slaves born after his first coronation in 1868 should be revalued and become free people when they reach the age of 2 1. 1900, another decree was issued, which stipulated that the value of prisoners of war and debt slaves in northwest China was decreasing year by year, and they could become free men when they reached the age of 60. 1904 issued a decree to reduce the value of slaves in the eastern region by 4 baht per month until their value was automatically redeemed. 1905 finally issued a decree stipulating that all children of slaves should become free men; The value of all slaves will be reduced by 4 baht every month until they are completely reduced and become free people; It is forbidden to buy and sell slaves, and offenders will be punished with imprisonment of 1 to 7 years or a fine of 100 to 1000 baht.

1874, Rama V also reformed the advisory system and established the Senate by decree to assist the king in handling government affairs and discussing the laws to be promulgated soon. Soon, the Privy Council was established as the king's private advisory body. Later, the Senate was replaced by the State Council composed of 12 ministers. Starting from 1887, Rama V followed the example of Europe and made major reforms to the state administrative organization. The original six central ministries were reorganized and expanded to 12. In addition to the original internal affairs, military affairs, palace affairs, agricultural affairs, finance and municipal affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Academic Affairs, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Imperial Seal are newly established. Subsequently, new courts were established, criminal laws were promulgated, civil laws were reformed and the traditional torture system was abolished. It is stipulated that all government officials receive a fixed salary, abolishing the past system that the state gave Lutian according to the feudal hierarchy. The government has also hired many foreign experts from Britain, the United States, Denmark, Sweden and other countries to serve as consultants for various ministries to assist in the reform.

1892, the Ministry established according to the western cabinet system replaced the ancient Ministry-"Long Ge", and cancelled the positions of two prime ministers, namely the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Military Affairs, and the heads of ministries were called ministers. To 1908, the original 12 was changed to 18, and the war department and the imperial seal department were reduced to the level of government. The work of each part is clear, thus becoming the embryonic form of modern administrative organization in Thailand. The feudal system of knighthood and land search was abolished and replaced by salary. Local officials are appointed and transferred by the central government. A modern state machine has been established.

The local government implements three-level management, and the whole country is divided into 18 provinces, with counties and villages below. Each province is directly under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner sent by the central government, and the county magistrate is subordinate to the provincial Commissioner, and the village head is subordinate to the county magistrate. In this way, local feudal forces and remote vassal States were brought into the national administrative system, which greatly strengthened centralization. Rama V made great efforts to rectify the national finance and reform the tax system. From the era of Jessadaboindra (1824-1851), the tax package system prevailed, and the government called people to contract, making a lot of money fall into the pockets of tax package people; State funds are deposited in the king's treasury, and there is no difference between the king and the treasury.

1873, Rama v established the tax department, promulgated the tax protection regulations, uniformly stipulated the national tax rate, and strictly managed the tax work of the central ministries; Abolish the method that the state asks people to do everything, and the government sends officials to collect taxes directly, thus effectively stopping all kinds of illegal acts of tax evasion. Since 1892, the king's budget has been separated from the state's budget, preventing members of the royal family from squandering state property at will. 1892- 1906, the national income increased from150,000 plants (120,000 pounds) to 40 million plants, and there was no new tax. 1899, with the development of commodity-currency relations and the gradual abolition of slavery, the government ordered the abolition of the rule that civilians must be subordinate to a feudal official. This order is related to the legal abolition of the labor system. At this time, national labor has been replaced by poll tax, and the rate of poll tax varies from province to province.

Land in Thailand began to be bought and sold privately in the middle of19th century, when the state legally stipulated and established private land ownership. Implement the collection of currency and local taxes, and continuously reduce the land tax rate. Local taxes are determined according to the size of land area rather than the harvest of grain, which makes the national income quite stable. In addition, since the mid-1980s, the cultivated land area has been continuously expanded, and the national land tax has been greatly increased.

The era of Chulalongkorn is also an era of rapid economic development in Siam. Since the end of 19, railway construction has connected the main rice producing areas-Chao Phraya River Delta with the emerging rice producing areas in the central and northern regions, and rice export has become the largest source of income for Siam. Although forestry and mining are monopolized by foreign capital, they still need to pay income tax to the Siam government, and Siam's state-owned assets have begun to prosper. Headed by the king, the Siamese royal family and overseas Chinese businessmen invested a lot of money in rice mills, canneries, cement factories and textile mills. The financial revenue of Siam countries is getting higher and higher, and the national treasury is getting richer and richer. Siam used its rich financial income to carry out civil construction, dig canals, build railways and sluices, set up wires and telegraph lines, set up police forces, set up hospitals, museums and libraries, and opened many new schools. According to the report submitted by British Williamson, the financial adviser of Siam royal family, by 1909, Siam's financial revenue had reached 60 million baht (about 4.8 million pounds, equivalent to 39% of the income of the Qing Dynasty at that time, which was 17.3 times the per capita income of the Qing Dynasty), and the income exceeded the expenditure by 3.8 million baht. With the development of economy, the birth rate has risen, and a large number of overseas Chinese have flooded into Siam. The population of Siam increased from more than 5 million when Rama V ascended the throne to 9 million. Due to the improvement of medical conditions, the life expectancy of Siamese people has increased by more than five years. In his later years, although he invested heavily in infrastructure every year, the national finance was profitable year after year, reaching "no foreign debt and no domestic debt". In order to develop transportation, strengthen national defense and expand export capacity, Rama V began to build a modern transportation industry in the 1990s, which made the railways, highways, posts and telecommunications in Thailand develop rapidly, thus connecting remote areas with the capital Bangkok, which was conducive to the development of remote areas and national defense construction, linking the whole country into a relatively close economic whole and promoting the development of national commodity and currency relations.

Culture, education and health have also developed. Take a tolerant attitude towards the missionary schools founded by westerners, and set up a number of secular schools and specialized schools, such as drawing schools, civil service schools, normal schools and medical schools. Some reforms have also been made in the school curriculum. Rama V also ordered the selection of foreign students and sent them to study abroad. By the end of Chulalonggong's life, civilian education had begun to take shape in the whole country. In addition, libraries and museums have been established. In terms of health, hospitals, mental hospitals and orphanages have been built, the Red Cross Society and the Health Bureau have been established, and running water facilities have been built.

Chulalongkorn does not advocate total westernization. 1897 On his first trip to Europe, he once said: "A showman should not be surprised and despised by everything foreign, but at the same time, he should not just relish and dislike everything foreign. Every country, like everyone else, has good things and bad things. What we want to convey to our people is good and noble things, and combine these things with the character of our nation and the good and noble things in our system. " If everything runs with the west, you won't know which side is the head of the bed and which side is the end of the bed. For example, he encourages the spread of English, but opposes the excessive use of English vocabulary in daily life. He insists on the status of Buddhism as the state religion. Among Southeast Asian countries, Thailand is still one of the best countries to preserve oriental culture.

In a word, Rama V has made remarkable achievements in reform and has obvious progressive significance. It shook the traditional feudal relations of production and social structure in Thailand, promoted the collapse and disintegration of the natural economy and opened up a broad road for the development of the national economy. Some people call this period a "reform period" in Thailand. This reform has not fundamentally changed Thailand's traditional political system. Thailand is still an absolute monarchy, and Rama V is still a feudal monarch. In the cabinet established in 1892, nine ministers in 12 were his younger brothers, six major generals in 13 were members of the royal family, and more than half of the teachers were from the royal family. Most of the provincial leaders are also brothers of Rama V, which shows that the reformed Thai kingdom is still the "home of the feudal monarch". Second, as a result of over-reliance on foreign experts and consultants for reform, imperialist forces have infiltrated all important departments from the central government to the local government. For example, the general adviser and foreign policy adviser are Americans, the Ministry of Finance and customs adviser are British, the naval adviser is Danish, and the army adviser is German and Swedish. Other ministries and agencies also employ foreign consultants. By the end of Rama V's reign, there were as many as 247 foreign advisers in the government. They are in power and actually control various departments in Thailand. So that a joke appeared: a Thai finance minister, when bidding farewell to the foreign consultant of the Ministry, asked: "Who will be in charge of the work of the Ministry after you leave?"