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Little is known about the transition to the Modern Economy in non-European settings. Southeast Asia provides a rare opportunity to evaluate this transition through analysis of the tradeware production system that operated at the site of Sisatchanalai in central northern Thailand. Sisatchanalai is the largest and longest lived (A.C. 1100–1650) stoneware production complex in continental Southeast Asia. Based on the timing and nature of changes in tradeware production, we suggest that the political and economic structures present in Thailand during this era precluded its incorporation into the European periphery. Like Japan and China, Thailand successfully defined its own terms for subsequent European interaction.