An analysis of Thai government expenditures demonstrates that they expanded rapidly between 1900 and 1969, due primarily to rising prices and the extension of government functions, particularly during the post-war period. In contrast, the war effect had little influence on the growth of expenditures. During the period under study, Thai government expenditures were devoted largely to general, social, and economic services, with emphasis on transportation and communication, defense, agriculture, and education. Current expenditures (for defense, education, etc.) represented a higher percentage of total government expenditures than did capital expenditures (for public construction, social services, etc.). In general, the case of Thailand indicates that levels of government expenditure were higher in conjunction with greater emphasis on economic and social development.

Over the past two decades, environmental history as an approach to the understanding and explanation of historical processes has become gradually fashionable amongst academics; empirical data collected over the North Atlantic proposed new trends with regards to economic patterns during the Viking Age. The increasing number of Viking Age sites exposed in Iceland, the amount of zooarchaeological collections highlighting an abundant presence of fish bones in the overall archaeofauna, together with one’s expertise in environmental history as well as a strong interest in socio-economic development during the Viking Age and medieval periods were many factors which help identify strengths and weaknesses with regards to the understanding of the emergence of commercial fish trade in Iceland, and to a lesser extent, the Faeroe Islands. The thesis proposes a new theory with regards to human adaptation to new environments, and subsequent economic developments based on the commercial exploitation of fish. The interdisciplinary aspect of this project using cultural sediment analysis and zooarchaeology, as well as concepts from anthropology and economic anthropology, allows for the theory to be tested by empirical data.