The Relationship between the Strategic Expulsion of the Douglas Steamship Company by the Japanese Colonial Governor-General of Taiwan and the Transportation of Mainland Chinese Workers during the Japanese Colonial Period in Taiwan

Abstract

In the early days of Taiwan’s occupation by Japan, Douglas Lapraik & Co monopolized the nautical route between Tamshui and Xiamen across the Taiwan Strait, on which passengers and cargo transports were frequent. For Japan as a new colonial power, this undoubtedly was not something to be happy about. So Governor Kodama issued a secret order to osk to start the South China shipping route in March 1899, in order to drive out Douglas Co. from Taiwan. Owing to a subsidy from the Government-General of Taiwan, Ōsaka merchant shipping companies could cut down ticket fees to extreme depth, snatch away the customers of Douglas Co. and purchase her stocks secretly. This strategy made Douglas Co. suffered badly. People would have thought that Douglas Co. would go down all the way, but from the tea-manufacturing period of 1901 onwards, she drew up a new approach of Armageddon to snatch tea workers from the Mainland and transport them to Taiwan. Although this strategy seems to have been very successful, Douglas quit shipping around Taiwan since 1904. Why did Douglas Co. quit? According to the author’s research, the real cause is not long-term losses, but the implementation of the system of managing Chinese workers from October 1904 onwards. It seems clear, that the post of Chinese worker’s manager was set up to deal with the new approach of Douglas Co., because it facilitated the establishment of a monopoly for Douglas Co.’s main competitor, osk, so that the former lost the last glimmer of hope and could not but quit. (This article is in English.)