Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎21v] (45/154)

448
JOURNEY - ROUND SIAM.
The Menam valley is, comparatively speaking, well-known country,
and I shall here only endeavour to draw your attention to one or two
significant facts about it, so that you may picture to yourselves the
contrast between the Mekong and the Menam valley.
Siam, as I have remarked at the opening of this paper, may be
divided into the two valleys of the Menam and the Mekong, and the
total average import and export trade for the kingdom of Siam, based
on the returns for the past three years, amounts to four and three-quarter
millions sterling per annum. As I have estimated the total export and
import trade that passes to and from the Mekong region at about a
quarter of a million, it follows that the balance of the remaining trade
of four and a half millions sterling per annum is carried on with the
Menam valley. These statistics show at a glance the relative impor
tance, as far as the outside world is concerned, of these two regions; and,
as the great proportion of this trade is carried on by British energy and
British capital, you can well understand the satisfaction of the mercan
tile community to find that this, the important and vital portion of the
kingdom of Siam, has, by the recent agreement concluded between
England and France, been placed in a position of absolute security and
freedom from armed interference on the part of either country.
Nor does four and a half millions sterling represent in any degree
the trade that the valley of the Menam is capable of when properly
developed, and when its five or six millions of inhabitants are brought
within easy reach of British markets. The export of rice, the principal
production of the country, which averages nearly two millions sterling
per annum, is drawn to a very great extent from the delta of the Menam
alone, and not many miles from Bangkok there are extensive tracts of
rich alluvial soil which need only canals to bring them within the area
of cultivation.
I he fertile valleys of Northern Siam, too, require to be brought into
closer connection both with Bangkok and Burma, and it is to the object
of constructing a Trunk railway up the valley of the Menam, and
thiowing off bianch lines to the Burmese frontier, that the Government
of Siam should strenuously devote itself. Nor should the extension and
lepaii of the canals in the Menam delta be forgotten, for in that low
alluvial land canals are even a more important factor for development
than railways.
In concluding this paper, I might take the opportunity of paying a
brief tribute of thanks to the Siamese authorities, and particularly to
H.R.H. Prince Damrong, the active and talented Minister of the Interior,
by whose special orders my transport throughout the whole of this
extensive journey was admirably arranged. It was to his foresight, and
to the care and energy displayed by the local officials, that I was nowhere
subjected to delay, and that I completed this tour round Siam without
any serious mishap.