日治初期台灣「樟腦問題」的發生及其意義

Abstract

本研究以日治最初期台灣總督府與英、德兩國之間所發生的「樟腦問題」為研究課題。由該問題的發展過程及日本對英、德兩國的外交折衝，可知甲午戰後正積極與列強交涉修改不平等條約的外務省，反而成為英、德兩國利益的代言人。雖然，最後英、德兩國的利益受到暫時的保留，然而由於實際替外商進行樟腦貿易的中國商人受到「居留地制度」的限制，結果使得自1860年代起發展出來的台灣樟腦貿易被迫中止，台灣的樟腦業亦因此進入新的階段。

This study focuses on the Taiwan camphor problem during the very beginning years of Japanese colonial ruling among the colonial government, Great Britain, and Germany. Due to the developing processes and diplomatic conflicts, it proves that the Japanese Foreign Affairs Department that should be supposed to actively negotiate with the two European countries to alter the unequal treaties after the victory in the Sino-Japanese War, but turned to be the spokesman for the advantage of the Great Britain and Germany. Although the advantage of the Great Britain and Germany were in the end temporarily reserved, the Mandarin merchants who traded actually for the European merchants were restricted by the Residence Rules, it came out that the Taiwan camphor trade which started from the 1860s was forced to cease, so that Taiwan camphor business stepped into another stage.