Great question. Thai economic history research largely waned after the 1980s, so there isn’t a huge range of recent dedicated EH books. I’ll give a short list of recent publications and some classics. https://twitter.com/underexpose/status/1199941448927338496

The most recent publication is Aj. Porphant Ouyyanont’s “A Regional Economic History of Thailand.” It’s published in Thai and English. I still haven’t had a chance to read it, but given his other work, I imagine it is quite accessible.

Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker’s “A History of Thailand,” while not a dedicated economic history, has a lot of EH elements.

I am actually a bigger fan of Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker’s “A History of Ayutthaya.” Again, it’s not a dedicated economic history, but there is a nice treatment of the Ayutthayan economy in terms of external trade, local commerce, and gendered economic roles.

Aj. Sompop Manarungsan’s “Economic Development of Thailand: 1850-1950” is a book that I often reference. He compiled a lot of numbers to evaluate the development of several sectors of the economy.

David Feeny’s “Political Economy of Productivity” is a classic text that looks at the development of land rights and rice productivity over the 19th and 20th centuries. This is a bit more technical, but very readable.

I think a great book to read in conjunction with Feeny is @TH_Larsson ‘s “Land and Loyalty.” It’s a political history of land rights and gives a different view of the emergence of private property rights in land, which has implications for productivity and development. Huge fan.

If you talk about books on the economic history of Thailand, you have to mention James Ingram’s “Economic Change in Thailand: 1850-1970.” I have a love-hate relationship with this book. Like Wikipedia, it’s not a bad place to start, but it’s not the place you stop your inquiry.

A classic that I find extremely useful and interesting is William Skinner’s “Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History.”

A fun look at the development of the railways with discussion of its economic impacts is Ichiro Kakizaki’s “Rails of the Kingdom: The History of Thai Railways.”

I will shamelessly add my own book with Aj. Thanyaporn Chankrajang: “A Brief Economic History of Land Rights in Thailand.” I think it’s still available from Chula Books. It’s probably not the most popular book in their stock.

I’m sure I’m missing several great works that are currently slipping my mind, but this list is a good start if you want to find out something about the economic history of Thailand.

Here’s another by Ichiro Kakizaki: “Trams, Buses, and Rails: The History of Urban Transport in Bangkok, 1886-2010”

“Capital Accumulation in Thailand 1855-1985” by Akira Suehiro