清代臺灣的「港戶」及其水域權利 ──以臺江內海新灣二港為例 = Monopoly Merchants and Their Dominance over Waterways: A Case Study of Southwestern Taiwan Lagoons in the Qing Period

For quite a long time, researches conducted on Taiwan under the Qing Empire have been focused on agricultural settlement, administration, or ethnic relations. These researches have tended to overlook the history of the fishermen, fish sellers and salt dealers who operated on the coast and around lagoons. Consequently, the tax farming system related to the coves of Taiwan, the Pugang System (港制度), which was established by The Dutch East India Company and inherited by the Zheng and Qing rulers, has been overlooked by most historians. The present article focused on two coves, Xingang (新港) and Mujialiuwangang (目加溜灣港), in southwestern Taiwan in order to investigate and understand the monopoly merchants’ dominance over the waterways with the support of the Pugang System. It reveals that the merchants’ degree of dominance was constantly influenced by policies, social developments, and transformations of the natural environment.
This present article proceeds to argue that the Qing court’s adjustment of the Pugang System laid the ground for the monopoly merchants’ lasting dominance over the waterways. The Dutch had established the system of taxing farming, thus selling monopolies over the waterways to the highest bidders. Subsequently, the Qing set fixed prices on this kind of tax farming, so the monopoly merchants gained permanent control over the waterways. However, the merchants’ dominance over the waterways was not explicitly ensured by the taxation laws. Their dominance was also constantly affected by government policies, social and economic developments as well as by natural changes before final consolidation.