Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011, vol. 1: The Making of the Luso-Asian World: Intricacies of Engagement

4. Eighteenth-Century Diplomatic Relations Between Portuguese Macao and Ayutthaya: The 1721 Debt Repayment Embassy from Macao

4 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN PORTUGUESE MACAO AND AYUTTHAYA: THE 1721 DEBT REPAYMENT EMBASSY FROM MACAO Stefan Halikowski Smith One of the pre-eminent, current historiographical debates in Thai history concerns the nature of the “National Revolution” of 1688 and whether it genuinely ushered in a period of xenophobia and retreat from international engagement, with Siam becoming a “hermit kingdom” in the language of the academic literature.Traditionally, historians like Hutchinson have insisted that the country became moved by “a spirit of blind and arrogant self-sufficiency”.1 Revisionist historians like Anthony Reid would like to suggest that this was not necessarily the case, since relations between Siam and China were strengthened in this period, and that Phetracha (ruled 1688–1703) was not personally motivated by xenophobia but used it to motivate political support.2 The European population remaining in Ayutthaya nevertheless suffered considerable hardships when we compare their situation to earlier times. Fernão Mendes Pinto created an enduring myth of the “good king” (bom rei) of Siam, which we can accommodate to the long reign of Naraï (ruled 1656–88).3 Under Phetracha, on the other hand, some of the leading European families 83 84 Stefan Halikowski Smith were enslaved, and — to quote from a Portuguese document produced shortly after the climactic events — “the college of the Bishop has been turned into a pagoda and the Christians among the local population under the bishop were seized, the King forcing them to apostize.”4 Of the European trading companies, only the Dutch factory managed to limp on, the French colonial entrepreneur Pierre Poivre reporting in 1745 that “today, the Dutch are the only Europeans who go to trade in Siam”, sending three regular ships from Batavia per annum, plus one East Indiaman that stopped in Siam on its way to Japan.5 In 1715, the once burgeoning company trade in deerskins came to an abrupt end, as it was decided that the two East Indiamen allowed annually to Deshima would be more profitably laden with other goods taken on board in Batavia.6 Final closure of the logie (the Dutch trading factory), however, came only in 1765.7 Thai historiography traditionally does not really accept, or even engage, with the debate about xenophobia and long-term retreat and presents circumstances in Siam at the time as peaceable and stable in this period.8 King Taisra (1709–33) is seen to have enjoyed a peaceful, twenty-four-year reign, punctuated only by an “intervention in the internal affairs of Cambodia in 1717 in order to maintain overlordship”.9 According to primary sources like Hamilton, however, the campaign was a resounding failure, with trenchant consequences for the Siamese military both on land and at sea, with the army subject to an epidemic and the fleet trapped in small creeks where the “great vessels” were set ablaze.10 Taisra is otherwise seen to have spent his time improving the internal water communications and foreign trade. His reign is considered noteworthy for the renewal of Spanish Philippine trade with Siam, severed for at least sixty years. On this point, Taisra’s initiative seems to make sense, other historians like Arasaratnam suggesting that the Philippines mark “the only bright spot in [an] overall gloomy picture” of Indian Ocean trade between 1700 and 1740.11 Besides, the political pragmatism of the Thai monarchy, siding with more successful and useful foreign parties in the kingdom, is well known, and frequently commented upon by external sources.12 I have argued recently that the Portuguese mixed-blood community fared somewhat better in Ayutthaya than other European nations in this period, primarily because their political allegiances were no longer to Europe: the Portuguese were a rootless “tribe” of individuals, many of whom had come in repeated displacements from Southeast Asia, racked by Dutch military seizures and eviction orders.13 In the climactic circumstances surrounding the court revolution of 1688, Phetracha even extended an arm of friendship to the Portuguese community. As the Novas do Reyno reports: Diplomatic Relations between Portuguese Macao and Ayutthaya 85 The King asked the captains of foreign ships who were in the port to defend the river [the Chao Phraya]. The captains of the two ships from our [city of] Macao offered him their ships, their crew, and their assistance. The King accepted this offer and as a gesture of thanks he gave and dressed with his own hands some coats (casacos...