2022 年 39 巻 p. 25-46
Abstract
Strains were evident in the supply and demand for electric power during World War I. Taiwan Electric Power Co., Ltd. was founded in 1919 during the postwar economic boom in order to carry out the Sun-Moon Lake (Jitsugetsutan) project, whose purpose was to develop of a high-capacity hydroelectric power plant. However, there was no clear electric power consumption plan that would have been able to mitigate the lack of investment incentives. After the postwar economic panic, procuring financing from the capital market stagnated, and the project was suspended. Following this experience, Taiwan Electric Power Co., Ltd. in the second half of the 1920s drew up an investment funds redemption plan based on a power consumption plan that seemed more certain to be realized. Against this backdrop, there was a steady increase in small-lot demand mainly from the rice husking and rice polishing industries. The capital needed for the project was procured thanks to the issuance of foreign bonds in June 1931. However, the investment funds redemption plan collapsed due to a foreign exchange loss that came with a crash in the yen exchange rate six months later. Taiwan Electric Power Co., Ltd., having reduced its foreign exchange loss by purchasing its foreign debt, was able to capture large-lot demand by selling electric power at cut-rate prices. In the mid-1930s, it put its investment funds redemption plan on course and won the confidence of the capital market. The problem of insufficient investment incentives disappeared, and Taiwan Electric Power Co., Ltd. was able to procure the capital needed for developing new sources of electric power from the capital market by issuing new shares.
