In the early Rattanakosin Era, the economic and social characteristics were of a self-sustained economy. In other words, there was no division of labor. Each family had to produce all necessities on their own. There was plenty of empty land but little productive labor since most people had to give labor service to the government and their masters. Only a little time was left to earn their living and raise their family. Part of a product was kept for household needs while the rest was sent to the government. Domestic trade was low due to limited resources, similar demands in different regions and inconvenient communications. It was during the reign of King Rama III that domestic trade expanded because of the greater role of Chinese merchants who acted as middlemen, sending goods into and out of various regions. Regarding the country's revenues, expenditure exceeded income. Most expenditure during the early Rattanakosin period was for construction, restoration of the country, defense, religious support, government officials' salaries and royal household expenses. These expenditures were high due to the fact that the Kingdom was newly established and that there were wars almost all of the time .The increase in expenditure while the income remained the same as in the Ayutthaya and Thon Buri period was the reason that the rulers had to find a way to increase national revenues.

Government revenues in the early Rattanakosin Period came from following sources:

1. Suay was money or articles that retainers gave as tax instead of labor service. If they did not wish to pay money, they could instead give local products from their hometowns, such as tin, saltpeter. Suay was also collected from the provincial towns and dominions.
2. Reu-cha was special fees that people paid for government services such as court fees, land patent issuing fees or ownership fees, etc.
3. A-Kom was duties that merchants paid to the government on concessions such as fisheries, forestry products collection, alcohol brewing. Another type of A-Kom was duties on people's occupations such as farming and rice farming. Rice farming duties in the King Rama II period could be paid in 2 ways: with products or with money. Money payments were for instance, 25 satang per rai. Other kinds of A-Korn, were orchard duty, market duty etc.
4. Taxes and Jangkob: Taxes included import and export taxes. Import tax was flexible. Any country with a good relationship with Thailand would pay less than occasional trade partners. In the time of King Rama II, the rate was fixed at 8%, except for Chinese merchants who paid only 4%. Export tax varied according to the type of goods.
   Jangkob was a toll collected on passageways which depended on the amount of goods and the size of vehicles. Customhouses that collected Jangkob were called Kanon. Jankob collection was divided into 2 types. The first type was a toll on land and waterways, collected in the form of goods. The other was collected according to the size of the vehicles that contained the goods, and was measured by the width of ship's beam known as a "beam's toll".

Although the main economic activity in the Rattanakosin Era was still agriculture, which relied on nature as before, the government tried to support agriculture by establishing an irrigation system. International trade grew bigger than before since Thailand had agricultural products which could match the demand of Western countries.