The area chosen for this study of the market network in Ayutthaya is defined by a central place and its vicinity with access for people to come to the centre. The types of services which people share the same centre in this study are economic and services activities. From the study Ayutthaya can be divided into two sectors each with its own centre. The sector described in this thesis to the one with Ayutthaya market as its centre, and is consequently called the “Ayutthaya Region”. The object of this study is to understand the nature of business enterprises in the Ayutthaya region and to find out from attitudes and practices of the businessmen their degree of modernization. In addition, the study comes commercial contacts and buyer-seller relationships which would reveal the area and pattern of contacts of the Ayutthaya region. Information and data used in this study are obtained from three research projects of the Chulalongkorn University Social Science Research Institute , carried out during the period of B.E. 2511 – 2512. These are : Survey of Geography and Communication Network in Ayuttaya region, research in ecology of Ayutthaya, and market research. Interview forms and questionnaires were used in all the studies to obtain information from owners of various business establishments in Ayutthaya region. From this study we learn the general characteristics of Ayutthaya market centre of the Ayutthaya region. The general operations of the market are not very modern. There are still a great deal of traditional practices , such as price bargaining instead of a fixed price system; business contacts of the people depend more of their trust in credit standing of one another Rather than legal contracts ; labour employs in business is mainly family labour. The majority of business establishment owners are in the transitional stage , i.e. having a little higher level of modernization than that of the traditional stage. People with modern attitudes are those with business practices in the transitional stage , while less modern attitudes are related with practices in the traditional stage. On the whole establishment owners in Ayutthaya region have rather modern attitudes and could achieve a higher degree of modernization. Regarding commercial contacts wish other places , Ayutthaya being on agricultural region , has to rely on other finished goods from outside markets . Import is thus more extensive than export market. However , the most important market for Ayutthaya region is Bangkok which purchases agricultural produce from the Ayutthaya region and distributes goods needed by the Ayutthaya region and distributes goods needed by the Ayutthaya market. With the Bangkok market, Ayutthaya market would be unable to stand on it own. Business establishment owners buy products for sale in the Ayuttaya region on mutual trust, bused on long and regular contacts and avoid casual deals with unacquainted people. This is a noted characteristic of most agricultural soeicties.
