Taiwan¡¦s monopoly system, originating from the Military Governor Ming-chuan Liu of Qing Dynasty and applied by the Japanese, was a major financial source in Japan-colonized Taiwan. Chen Yi, the first ROC Chief Executive and Garrison Commander of Taiwan, renamed the Monopoly Bureau of Government-General as the Monopoly Bureau of Taiwan and then continued its monopolistic business. He stipulated five items -- tobacco, alcohol, camphor, matches, and measurement gadgets-- be monopolized by government whereas private manufacturing and sales be barred under the supervision of the Monopoly Bureau. Also banned from private transactions are certain necessities, such as salt, lime, cane sugar, gasoline, and electricity, which were distributed by some authorities other than the Monopoly Bureau. It was thought that such measures could restrict individual capital, and reinforce national capital in the hopes of realizing the idea of the nation founding, based on the doctrines of the Three People¡¦s Principles.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, though asserting capital restrictions in some degree, was not opposed to private capital, but, rather, was keen to encourage private enterprises. He had the national industries developed by a dual action via both private enterprises and national organizations. His philosophy argued that those productions not so proper to be commissioned to a state-run organization as to a private one should, along with incentives from the state and protection by the law, be rendered to the latter for operations. Based on this, it appeared obvious that people¡¦s livelihood didn¡¦t connote nationalization. And by no means did livelihood denote that the government could confiscate the industries already operated by civilians.
After a further study, a distinction could be found in the argument between the economic centralization implemented by the authorities of Taiwan¡¦s administrative officers and the capital restriction elaborated in the Principles of People¡¦s Livelihood. The colossal assets taken over from Japanese-owned industries didn¡¦t mean any opportunities to reinforce national capital. Instead, monopolistic business was designed to operate by the government and afterwards turned up being outstanding samples of state-owned businesses among the industries in post-war Taiwan. The key factor consisted in the fact that state-owned industries were run under the supervision of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly, which boosted the managerial performance.
The revenues from monopolistic sales of tobacco and spirits were crucial to the finances of our country and were helpful to the development of its economic constructions. The monopoly featured two functions. One function was to revive the production of the state-owned industries, which laid a foundation to carry out a six-term Four-year Economic Program, beginning in 1953; to make a substitute for imports; to spur export expansion; and to help kick-start our country¡¦s economic boom. The other function was to improve village constructions with land reforms of Three-seven-five Rent Deduction (a program limiting the rent of a land to a maximum of 37.5 percent of its total product), Release of State Lands, and Land-to-the-tillers Movements. The monopoly system was an indispensable support of finances, and it also ensured that the capital from the agricultural sector could be transferred to the industrial sector, which proved that provincial constructions were closely related to national economic development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0719106-140831 |
| Date | 19 July 2006 |
| Creators | YU, Lin-ya |
| Contributors | Jih-Hwa Wu, PETER C LIN, James C. T. Lee |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0719106-140831 |
| Rights | unrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive |
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