การควบคุมกำลังคนในสมัยรัตนโกสินทร์ก่อนการจัดการเกณฑ์ทหาร (พ.ศ.2325-2448) / นันทิยา สว่างวุฒิธรรม = Control of manpower during the Bangkok Period Prior to the tntroduction of modern conscription / Nuntiya Swangvudthitham
This thesis is a study of the system of the control of manpower since the beginning of the Bangkok period. It analyzes state policy as well as measures used to mobilize and utilize manpower, its main resources. It explains how the mun nai were assigned the control of the phrai in the capital and the central provinces as distinct from those in outlying and remote provinces. The phrai, male and female, were registered into units. The male being the country direct resources were classified into categories according to the nature of their duties. This traditional system of the control of manpower was gradually and eventually abolished by King Chulalongkorn. It is found that the majority of the population Thai and the minorities of Laos, Mon, Khmer and Vietnamese immigrants and captives were all included in a system of control known as the “phrai system”. Chinese and westerners, on the other hand, were regarded as aliens and were thus excluded from this system of control, only with a few exceptions. Within the phrai system, members of the royal family and officials formed the ruling class known as the mun nai and were given the responsibility of controlling the phrai by means of registering, tattooing and grouping them into mu, muad, kong and kom. The duty of the mun nai was to recruit the phrai to supply the state with corvée as well as required produces in place of corvée. The mun nai themselves were given access to phrai’s labour for personal ends. Consequently, manpower became undoubtedly economic, political and social resources and power base for the state and the mun nai. In accordance with the political, social and economic condition during the early Bangkok period, the government allowed a certain degree of leniency and laxity in the control of manpower both in the form of the degrees themselves as well as in their implementation. The phrai were not strictly categorized nor were their duties distinctly divided. Hence there was no clear distinction between the duties of the phrai som and phrai luang as generally believed by historians. Another interesting point is that the phrai were allowed, to a certain extent, to move and travel. Thus, the state had an accommodating policy for the control of manpower which had always been adapted according to changing conditions. However, the policy of leniency and laxity brought about confusion and inefficiency. With changing economic conditions and urgent need for reforms in different fields, the traditional system of control of manpower became futile. Once it was realized that the system had outlived its usefulness, it was eventually abolished.
