From Deer Skins to Dynamos (A 300-Year Economic History of Taiwan 1624-1945)

Taiwan: A Concise Economic History. On this podcast, we explore how a small island at the crossroads of East Asian trade transformed itself over four centuries—from a frontier of extraction to a foundation of modern industry. In today’s episode, we begin in the seventeenth century, when Taiwan first entered the global economy. At that time, sika deer hides were traded for Japanese silver, silver was exchanged for Chinese silk, and those luxuries were sold in Europe at enormous profit. Taiwan was not yet a nation-state, but it was already part of a global system. We will move through the era of Dutch colonization, the military economy under Koxinga, the long Qing frontier period, the opening of treaty ports and the tea boom, and finally the Japanese colonial state that introduced railways, dams, and heavy industry. This is not a story of sudden miracles. It is a story of layered institutions, strategic geography, and economic adaptation under pressure. I’m your host, and this is Taiwan: A Concise Economic History. Let’s begin.