Bowring Treaty

Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between Great Britain and Siam (Thai: หนังสือสัญญากรุงเทพมหานครกับกรุงอังกริษเปนทางไมตรีค้าขายกัน), known colloquially as the Bowring Treaty, was the historic landmark treaty signed between the United Kingdom during the reign of Queen Victoria and the Kingdom of Siam during the reign of King Mongkut on 18 April 1855 at Thonburi, Bangkok. The treaty had tremendous effects on Siamese economy, society and international relations in Thai history, marking the advent of "Modern Siam" in most historiographies, also serving as the model for "Bowring-type" unequal treaties that Siam was going to make with other Western nations in the nineteenth century.

The Anglo–Siamese Burney Treaty of 1826, which Siam made with the British East India Company, stipulated abolition of monopoly of Phra Khlang Sinkha or Royal Warehouse, granting the British merchants free trade in Siam without having to go through the Royal Warehouse, which formerly held monopoly over all Western trades in Siam. However, the British merchants were subjected to the measurement duties, which were collected according to the breath of incoming merchant ships and the British in Siam were still subjected to local Siamese laws.

Both the British and the Siamese were unsatisfied with the Burney Treaty terms. To compensate for revenue loss, Siam reintroduced monopolies through tax farming in the 1840s. British merchants in Singapore complained to the British Indian government about Siam's supposed violation of the treaty and, when the latter did not respond, complained directly to the Foreign Office. As the British Empire arose in power in the Far East in the aftermath of First Opium War, Lord Palmerston the British Foreign Secretary sent Sir James Brooke to obtain a new treaty from Siam in 1850. Brooke proposed reduction of duties and establishment of British consular jurisdiction in Siam but the Siamese rejected them all, leading to detorioration of the Anglo–Siamese relations and the British considering sending warships to Siam.

Ascension of King Mongkut of Siam, who had been well-disposed towards Westerners, in 1851 shifted the Siamese policies. Mongkut publicly urged Sir James Brooke to resume his negotiations but Brooke was unable to return to Siam. In 1854, Lord Clarendon the British Foreign Secretary appointed Sir John Bowring the Governor of Hong Kong as the British plenipotentiary to conclude a new treaty with Siam. Bowring and his assistant Harry Parkes arrived in Bangkok in March 1855. Mongkut appointed five Siamese plenipotentiaries to negotiate with Bowring, among them was Chaophraya Si Suriyawong Chuang Bunnag or Phra Kalahom who favoured Bowring's proposals. The Bowring Treaty was signed on 18 April 1855 at the mansion of Somdet Chaophraya Prayurawong in modern Thonburi, Bangkok. The treaty terms included;

Establishment of British extraterritorial jurisdiction in Siam; Britain appointed Consul to Bangkok to oversee the British subjects in Siam. Any legal cases involving British subjects as defendants would be judged by the British Consul under British law not under Siamese law and judiciary.

Abolition of the measurement duties stipulated in the 1826 Burney Treaty in favour of the general import duty of low rate of three percent.

Permission of travel and land ownership for the British in the designated area surrounding Bangkok under specific conditions

Legalization of British opium import into Siam only through Siam's government opium tax farmers

The treaty was set to come into effect on 6 April 1856, about one year after the signing. Harry Parkes brought the Bowring Treaty to the British government at London for ratification, where the Queen's Advocate found the Bowring Treaty terms to be vague. Harry Parkes was then assigned to return to Siam to exchange ratifications and to obtain additional terms to clarify some points of the treaty. Ratifications of the Bowring Treaty were exchanged on 5 April 1856 at the Siamese royal palace. Anglo–Siamese Agreement of May 1856, concluded between Harry Parkes and the Siamese, stipulated that the British in Siam were under exclusive jurisdiction of British Consul without interference from the Siamese government and preceding Burney Treaty terms that did not conflict with the Bowring Treaty continued to take effect.

The Bowring Treaty served as the model of other unequal treaties that Siam was going to make with other Western nations, most notably the American–Siamese Harris Treaty of May 1856 and the Franco–Siamese Montigny Treaty of August 1856. Amicable relations between Great Britain and Siam established by this Bowring Treaty also led to the Siamese diplomatic mission to London in 1857. This Bowring Treaty had immense liberalizing effects on the Siamese economy. Low duties per the principle of free trade attracted more British merchants as British Empire replaced Qing China as the main trading partner of Siam, transforming Siam from self-subsistence economy to a marketised export-oriented one. However, reduction of duties also had drastic effects on state revenue, which Siam sacrificed in order to preserve sovereignty.

Provisions of the Bowring Treaty were subsequently amended and dismantled through successive treaties. As the British came in great numbers for the teak industry in Northern Siam, the Anglo–Siamese Chiengmai Treaty of 1883 stipulated appointment of British Vice-Consul to Chiang Mai and that any legal cases involving British subjects only in the three Northern Thai provinces of Chiang Mai, Lampang and Lamphun, were to be judged by the Siamese royal commissioner in a mixed court under presence of the British Vice-Consul. This was a major milestone as this was the first time the Siamese were allowed to judge cases involving British subjects as defendants.

Anglo–Siamese Treaty of 1909, in which Siam ceded the Northern Malay sultanates of Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis to British Malaya, abolished most of British extraterritorial jurisdiction in Siam as stipulated by the Bowring Treaty. All British subjects in Siam were placed under Siamese jurisdiction in mixed courts with presence of British legal advisors. Siam's entry into World War I on the Allies side gave Siam the opportunity to abrogate existing unequal treaties that Siam had concluded with Western nations. In 1924, King Vajiravudh sent Francis Bowes Sayre, an American Harvard Law professor, to go on a European tour to renegotiate treaties with European nations on Siam's behalf. The Anglo–Siamese Treaty of 1925, signed in July 1925, terminated the Bowring Treaty as a whole in Article V. British subjects in Siam came under jurisdiction of Siamese ordinary courts without any British legal advisors and the three-percent tariff was abolished.