植民地期台湾製糖業における甘蔗輸送

―台湾製糖の事例―

抄録

This paper seeks to shed new light on the process by which the modern cane sugar industry in Taiwan came into being and how it became established under Japanese colonial rule. While doing so, the study focusses on the issues involved in shipping raw sugarcane.

Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which had developed as a colonial enterprise, planned to become self-sufficient in sugarcane through the use of an extensive company-held plantation. However, in actuality, it continued to rely on purchases from local farmers. Sugarcane is bulky and requires great effort to transport, and the ability to rapidly transport large volumes of sugarcane is critical because the sugar content drops over time after it has been harvested. Hauling sugarcane from farmers in carts pulled by water buffalo to the factory posed a bottleneck for large-scale, continuous production—a characteristic feature of the modern sugar industry.

The use of a private steam-powered railway that began operating at the end of 1907 was a goal of TSMC, which, since its founding, had made efforts to gradually improve its sugarcane logistics. These proprietary rail lines integrated the sugarcane production process from harvesting to milling and also contributed to greater profits by improving sugar yields.

After the Russo-Japanese War, TSMC continued building its own proprietary rail lines so that it would be able to continue dealing with the problem of rapidly transporting sugarcane from the fields to the factories. The company also successfully undertook the building of an inter-linking transport network among its factories, thus becoming able to adjust sugarcane supply and demand beyond the limitations of the raw-material acquisition zones. TSMC's construction and enhancement of its ground-breaking raw material transport system became a business model for the modern cane sugar industry in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, thus stimulating growth in the industry overall as other sugar manufacturers copied them.