Thailand Siam Agriculture Revenue Stamps

Siam Thailand Agriculture revenues stamps were used from 1883-1898 to pay tax on the harvest of rice paddy fields. In a previous post some weeks ago I already gave a basic description of those stamps.

Documents in good condition with those stamps are very rare, besides the documents issued in Chantaburi (Chantaboon) in 1896. In my collection I have 8 documents issued in Chantaburi in 1996 and only 7 documents issued between 1883 and 1898 for the rest of Thailand. Most of those latter 7 documents look rather tatty with waterspots, and termite holes.

For years I was puzzled why the termites in Thailand did not like to munch on Chantaburi documents but all other documents in Thailand were fair game.
It became more clear last year when I purchased from a French dealer a yellow color Agriculture revenue stamp. This stamp had a postmark Chantaboon dated 4/1/1897, see on bottom of scan 1.
The dealer only specialized in France and colonies.
With the help of the internet I soon started to see a more clear picture.
Chantaboon is in the south east of Thailand close to the Cambodia border. Starting 1885, The French started to create border conflicts with Thailand in order to expand Indochina. Their target was to make the east side of the Mekhong river, which was partly belonging to Thailand, part of Indochina. The conflict reached a climax in 1893 with the Paknam conflict in which French gunboats blockaded Bangkok.
For more details on the Paknam incident see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paknam_incident
The French did win and in the following peace treaty Thailand had to surrender parts of Thai border territory to Indochina. To make sure the Thai kept their part of the treaty, the French also occupied the Thai town in the south east of Thailand, Chantaboon.
The French would occupy that town from 1893 till early 1905.

So I guess that the postal cancel Chantaboon on the yellow stamp is a favor cancel for some French officer. (most of the solders were locals, recruited in Indochina with a few French officers and staff).
Sometime before 1905, the French carried away a bunch of the Agriculture documents and kept them in France, this is the reason the Thai termites could not destroy them. There are still many questions. Why did Chantaboon use Thai revenue stamps during the occupation, and who was the owner of the taxes paid? Why not the use of Indochina revenue stamps?

Fascinating story.
Personally, this does not surprise me at all.
Having lived in Thailand, the Thais are extremely resourceful, and I assume their counterparts the Laotian as well.
They certainly are not going to rely on ceremony.

If the instruments are available to raise taxes are on hand, they would be certainly using, and not wasting them. Whomever was in charge.

When we were building, in Northern Thailand, we were on the third floor,
and the builder was raising these huge cement slabs, by rope over a bicycle wheel. I couldn't watch, and would go out to the market whist this was in operation. Fearing every day there would be a tragedy.

French presence whether civilian or military in Siam was considered a zone of influence (Military expeditionary force) for diverse political reasons.This zone was never integrated into French Indochina.
Boundries of Indochina;


A link showing some rare French military stationery from Chantaboon.P94
http://www.timbresmag.com/wp-conten.../02/Siam.pdf

Perf12, thanks a lot for the reply. This is the first time I see a clear map which parts ever belonged to Thailand.
Also I now understand that administrative Chantaboon still belonged to Thailand and for that reason they continued to use The Thai revenue stamps.
I do not longer collect the Thai postage stamps and I had several of them with clear cancellation Chantaboon, but I never studied them for the dates in the postmarks. My guess now that during 1893 and 1905 they also used Thai postage stamps. The mail from the expeditionary forces in Chantaboon never carries any stamps as far as I know, I think they used a different postal system through Cambodia Vietnam and not thru Thailand.
As last, I know that the lost Thai territories make very fascinating and expensive stamp and mail collections, with the cancellations and stamps still Thai just before they're ready transferred to Indochina. Also after the transfer, they used indochina stamps but some towns still used for a while the Thai cancellation devices.

Thanks