Economic History of Taiwan: A Survey Tsong-Min Wu∗

This paper surveys the research works on Taiwan’s economic history for the past fifteen years. The period was from about the 18th to early 20th century. I have tried to cover the works by economists as well as the studies by re-searchers in History and other fields. The topics selected to be surveyed are: change of Taiwan’s per-capita GDP in the long-term, trade and development, aborigine property rights, and institutional change in early Japanese colonial period. The purpose of this paper is to survey the research works on Taiwan’s economic history for the past fifteen years. During the period, there have been so many publications in var-ious fields that it is impossible for me to discuss all of them. The research works selected to be covered in this paper certainly reflects my preference. I give priority to those topics that have attracted more researchers. Yeh (1994) has written a survey article on Taiwan’s economic history earlier. Her survey covers mainly the works of scholars in the field of Economics and the main focus is on the Japanese colonial period. Her surveyed topics include: change in real income of Taiwanese people, land tenure system, economic devel-opment and structural change, and so on. With the idea that this paper is a complement to Yeh (1994) in mind, this survey covers also the studies on the Ch’ing era, and pays at-tention to researchers in History and other fields. Generally speaking, research works by ∗Department of Economics, National Taiwan University. In writing this paper, I have benefited greatly from the comments of Hui-wen Koo, Ming-Jen Lin, Yu-ju Lin, Kelly Olds, and Alpha Kao. Email