Catching and selling elephants: trade and tradition in seventeenth century Siam

In present-day Thailand, the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) often has to endure much indignity and hardship. Its natural habitat has drastically dwindled, and its economic role is much reduced. Yet for several centuries the elephant has been much valued and used by Asian societies. Thomas Bowrey, who had much knowledge of the elephant trade in the Indian Ocean during the seventeenth century, praised the elephant as “the most Sensible Animal in the Universe in many respects” not only for their capabilities, but also “the Affection they beare one another after beinge Civilized.”1