| Summary: | 博士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 歷史學系 === 102 === Title of Thesis: A Study of the Alcoholic Beverage Monopoly In Postwar Taiwan, 1945-1986
Name of Institute: Department of History, Pages: 290
College of Humanities,
National Chi Nan University
Graduation Tine: 07/2014 Degree Conferred: Ph. D
Student Name: Ya-Jiun, Fan Advisor Name: Yen-hsien, Chang
Shaw-Herng, Huang
Abstract:
Monopoly refers to the national governmental exclusive benefits which are taken from the sale price of an industry or consumption which is enforced by law without applying regular taxation. The monopolization can be traced back thousands of years and can be found both in western and eastern histories. During the recent empire era of modern capitalism, it was even the excellent method for colonial governments to boost its finance. During Japanese colonial Taiwan period, this most concealed indirect-tax financial burden was the primary annual economical income.
After the Government of the Republic of China took over Taiwan, the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office was set up. The office implemented monopoly policy in accordance with local situation and imposed control by prohibitive tax. The governor inherited the past Japanese monopoly policy and applied to camphor, matches, tobacco, alcoholic beverage and measurement as five exclusive items. After 228 Incident in 1947, the Office was reorganized as Taiwan Provincial Government. Since then, only two monopolies, tobacco and alcoholic beverage, were reserved and the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau were created to monitor those monopolies. In the year of 1986, Sino-American trade negotiation was held and reached an agreement to liberalize the importing trade of tobacco and alcoholic beverage to Taiwan starting from 1st January, 1987. From that time on, although the monopoly policy was still imposed in Taiwan, but the market was not anymore exclusive. This posed a very severe challenge to the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau which was accustomed to operate under non-competitive environment. The monopoly policy was then ceased on 1st January, 2002, just before Taiwan became the member of WTO.
The development of alcoholic beverage making industry in Taiwan went though the changeover of governing authorities but the framework of the monopoly system maintained. The monopoly system is implemented for 80 years among a hundred more years of Taiwan alcoholic beverage making history. Within the framework of the monopoly system, Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau did not only manage and administrate the monopoly system, but also was the only tobacco and alcoholic beverage producer. Except its Taipei headquarter, its branches all over Taiwan were responsible for local management, monitor and distribution, and many distilleries around the island were in charge of the production of alcoholic beverage making. Their major tasks included the distribution of products, the assignment and management of selling right, and the procurement of raw materials and so on. In early economic shortage era of postwar Taiwan, the huge benefits form the monopolization accounted for 40% of national financial income in average, which was the significant contribution to finance in Taiwan.
Although the Bureau was only the tertiary unit of Taiwan Provincial Government, as a company it was the second largest industrial manufacturer in Taiwan. Its income was actually runner-up just behind Chinese Petroleum Corporation. However, because of its huge financial benefits and the needless duplication of central and provincial governing groups, it often laid the wrangling among political parties and militaries. The management priority was focusing at fulfillment of the authority’s assignment rather than business development. On top of that was the excess personnel generated by illegal lobbying of internal human resources that turned the Bureau to entrench within the bureaucracy. The inefficiency of management and operation led to poor quality of tobacco and alcoholic beverage products and less packaging refinement. It became a common situation that the supply of goods couldn’t meet the demand. This not only received a lot of criticisms from the reformist finance scholar but also was being left behind in Taiwanese market of the prosperously developed economy and consuming power. Without good quality and exquisite packaging, tobacco and alcoholic beverage produced by this Bureau took less and less market share after trade liberalization of the variety of tobacco and alcoholic beverage products which imported from expanded list of countries of origin. The annual growth of monopoly benefits in this Bureau was only saved by the overall economic growth in Taiwan. In other words, alcoholic beverage making monopolization in Taiwan suffered the bureaucratic management for several decades after WWⅡ, and this Bureau only generated the monotonous taste industrial products. Therefore, Taiwanese consumers welcome the alcoholic beverage and tobacco free trade market delightfully.
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