Ayutthaya Trade Port

Timeline

1. 1561–1563Ayutthaya Chao Phraya docks · AyutthayaAt the lower Chao Phraya docks, Chinese merchant junks and local Siamese wooden boats moored; silk, porcelain, and lead-tin were unloaded here, while rice and ivory were shipped south to Malacca or north to Guangzhou, forming an integrated river-port distribution market.
2. 1564–1566Outskirts of the Ayutthaya palace district · AyutthayaThe Portuguese were permitted to establish a trading house in Ayutthaya, exchanging firearms and European goods for Siamese tin and deerskin; the crown controlled foreign merchant activity and collected customs through a chartered trade system, making the port a node where Eurasian goods converged.
3. 1563–1569Ayutthaya · AyutthayaDuring Bayinnaung's invasions of the Toungoo dynasty, Ayutthaya was besieged twice, yet the Chao Phraya waterways and southern ports sustained basic trade, with Chinese and local merchants transshipping goods along the southern coastline, demonstrating the port system's resilience in wartime.
4. 1570Songkhla (southern outlet port) · SongkhlaTin from southern Siam was carried overland to southern ports such as Songkhla for export, then transshipped to Malacca or sailed directly into the Indian Ocean; Ayutthaya, as the political center, coordinated this export chain through taxation and licensing systems.