Résumé
Land systems undergo constant processes of redistribution through inheritance, sale or rentals. Imbalances may appear and create economic non-viability (fragmentation) or ownership concentration. The Chao Phraya delta is often considered as an example of subsistence peasant economy and culture and culture destabilised, or disintegrated, by the opening to markets and capitalism. This papers examines historical trends in farm size, land distribution and tenure, and concludes that there is no evidence of drastic imbalances in the land system. It shows that crises were experienced in some points of space and time, in particular around 1970, but that they do not adequately describe longer historical transformations.