The stoneware kilns of Sisatchanalai and early modern Thailand

Little is known about the transition to the Modern Economy in non-European settings. Southeast Asia provides a rare opportunity to evaluate this trans ition through analysis of the tradeware production system that operated at the site of Sisatchanalai in central northern Thailand. Sisatchanalai is th e largest and longest lived (AC 1100-1650) stoneware production complex in continental Southeast Asia. Based on the timing and nature of changes in tr adeware production, we suggest that the political and economic structures p resent in Thailand during this era precluded its incorporation into the Eur opean periphery. Like Japan and China, Thailand successfully defined its ow n terms for subsequent European interaction.