Page 171 - A History of Siam

A HISTORT OF SIAM 163

Foreign trade was placed under the control of the
or Minister of the and and
P'rak'lang, Treasury Finance,
most of the business came to be transacted
ultimately by
him, or by one of his subordinates, acting on behalf of
the The himself was thus the
King. King principal
import and export merchant in the country. The result
of this was not so inconvenient as it would be in a modern
State, since all the revenues of the country were, in any
case, the personal property of the King, and by making
direct he
large profits through trading, was, presumably,
able to manage with a proportionately smaller amount
of revenue derived from taxation.
In the 1612 there was further trouble with Burma.
year
In 1602 a certain Portuguese adventurer, Philip de
Brito, had been sent by the King of Arakan on an official
mission to the town of Syriam. De Brito succeeded, by
force and in in a few an
by guile, making himself, years,
In 1612 de Brito allied himself
independent sovereign.
with D'ya Dala, the Governor ofthe Siamese possessions in
Pegu, for the purpose of attacking Taungu. This attack
was presumably made under Siamese auspices, in order to
Natchin the Prince of
punish Noung, young Taungu,
who had succeeded his father in 1607. Natchin Noung
had, if we trust Siamese history, placed himself under the
of but had, not long afterwards, made
protection Ayut'ia,
a complete submission to the King of Ava. He had not
much choice in the matter, as Maha T'ammaraja of Ava
had appeared before the walls of Taungu at the head of
an overwhelming force. De Brito had entered into an
alliance with Natchin Noung, and he regarded the sub-
mission of his to Ava as an act of to himself.
ally treachery
He therefore with to the
gladly joined P'ya Dala, avenge
supposed wrongs of the King of Siam as well as his own.
Taungu was captured, and the Prince taken away a