The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the sugar refineries on the area development process in the dominant rice-producing zone in Taiwan between the 1900s and the 1920s.
The following points were different from the area development process in the dominant sugarcane-producing zone in southern Taiwan. Improved traditional sugar manufacturing plants were constructed in the Taichung Basin from the periphery, not from the center, and were in operation for a longer period. The involvement of the Japanese and Taiwanese capitalists residing in Taiwan was more significant. Low-cost Taiwanese push-car railways were used for a longer period.
