State numeracy : a history of the recording of information in Siam 1890-1925

Abstract

From the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Siamese government developed many kinds of systems for recording empirical information in order to support the modern state administration. During the 1890s, the government began to register households in order to count the number of people in each locality. With such information, the government could collect taxes directly from the people, maintain law and order within the country and take care of the people's life more closely. After the registration of households was applied throughout the kingdom, the government took another step. In the 1900s, the government began to conduct a census. In 1904, the first census was taken, but its study area was limited to only twelve out of nineteen administrative provinces. It was only in 1909 that the first census was conducted for the whole country. The information received from the census not only provided the government with the number of people that could be used for conscription, more importantly, it was also very useful for the merchants who wanted to do business in the country. While preparing for the first census in Siam, the government also worked on another system for recording information: vital statistics. Such information helped the government improve public health conditions in Bangkok and other provinces which had worsened after Siam merged into the network of international trade. Although information collected by this recording instrument was far from accurate, vital statistics helped the state take care of its people in a way that the government in previous eras could not. Finally, after spending twenty years developing the system for recording information, the government decided to establish a department responsible for collecting empirical information. In 1915, the Department of Commerce and Statistics was founded. Its primary task was to collect every kind of empirical data that the government needed for developing the country to meet the higher level of development. The reform of the systems for recording information might be considered by some historians as a minor part of the administrative reforms, but it was very crucial in the political history of Siam. Firstly, development of the system for recording information allowed the central government to rule from a distance and enabled the state to extend its power to every part of its territory in order to develop itself into a modern nation-state. Secondly, the modern system for recording information provided the state with information that the state needed to perform its functions effectively. Lastly, the modern system for recording information objectified a "fact" about Thai society by providing a new vocabulary and a new way of thinking about politics and governing.