Isan Travels: Northeast Thailand's Economy in 1883-1884

Bangkok: White Lotus, 2000. Paperback. Good/no dj. 1.00. Aymonier, Etienne. A book with more detailed reports on Northeast Thailand than have ever been collected by a nineteenth-century explorer. �tienne Aymonier was a specialist in Cambodian studies and traveled together with trained Cambodian assistants through Isan from south to north and from east to west, visiting many of the region�s districts. He reports on the political situation, dependency relationships among districts and provinces and their relations with the Court in Bangkok, agricultural and forestry commodities, usage and value of various local and national currencies, ethnic and language groups living in all villages he passed through, superstitions and religion, betel and opium use and other vices, population data and numbers of registered taxable men, taxes paid to Bangkok, and �corruption money� paid to various authorities including the Siamese Court and ministry officials.