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Through the rise and fall of the light railway in Nantou (1903-1936), we aim to understand why the light railway operators had invested the traffic industry in Nantou, and how the light railway network was used to connect with the market in the western plains by the local industry.
While studying the motive for building the light railway, we found that the local industry which had invested in Nantou light railway line had also invested in camphor, sugar, and the forest business in the same time. This made the Nantou area light railway from the early stages of development, was defined as assisting their own industry.
We further analyzed the composition of the light railway operators, and revealed that many of them were associated with large Japanese cooperation. In fact, the Japanese had involved with building of the light railway through collaborating with companies, in order to ensure that the sugar imported to the Japanese market was sufficient. Hence, the light railway was actually tightly controlled by the Japanese, until the 1927 Shōwa financial crisis broke out, where automobile transportation raised and the Jiji line emerged, light railway traffic had declined. In conclusion, we found in this study that the light railway in Nantou had a great impact on the outward transportation of local products, but not so much to the import of civilian resources.
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