King Chulalongkorn found government treasury to be in debt. He initiated his reforms with establishment of Ho Ratsadakorn Phiphat () or Financial Auditory Office in June 1873 to centralize and reorganize taxation system for more stringent revenue collection. Chulalongkorn underwent his second coronation in October 1873 to signify assumption of authorities but Si Suriyawong continued to hold actual powers. The king also appointed Council of State in May 1874, composing of mid-ranking nobles from Young Siam faction, and 'Privy Council' in August 1874, comprising exclusively of royal princes. Chulalongkorn's fiscal reforms conflicted with existing benefits of old nobility and put the king in political conflict with Si Suriyawong, who represented conservative faction. Chulalongkorn exerted his legislative powers through Council of State that passed many laws concerning tax reforms. Also in 1874, King Chulalongkorn made his first gradual step towards slavery abolition by decreeing that redemption price of slave child would continue to decline over age until the age of twenty-one when they would be freed. Both Chulalongkorn and Si Suriyawong agreed to corvée abolition. However, these reforms upset Prince Wichaichan of the Front Palace who had inherited from his father Pinklao huge manpower in service with more than one-thirds of kingdom's revenue accorded to him and supports from Thomas George Knox the British consul. On one night in December 1874, a fire broke out in the king's royal palace, in which Front Palace police forces were to enter to help putting down fires but they were denied entry by the king's guards for fear that the Front Palace had set up fire scene to enter the king's quarters. King Chulalongkorn then had his guards surround the Front Palace. This incident was known as Front Palace Crisis or Wangna Crisis. Chulalongkorn, in his "swimming to crocodile" move, asked Si Suriyawong for intervention to placate the situation. Si Suriyawong, however, suggested hard terms on Wichaichan who then fled to take refuge inside British consulate five days later in January 1875. Siam was on the brink of civil war and foreign intervention with Wichaichan resisting any compromises for he believed the British would give him full support. After many unsuccessful negotiations, Si Suriyawong suggested that the British invited a respectable figure to deal with this situation. Andrew Clarke the governor of Straits Settlements, who had earlier maintained friendly relations with Chulalongkorn, arrived in Bangkok from Singapore in February 1875 to act as mediator.