日治後期臺灣合作農倉功能試探

A Preliminary Study on the Function of Taiwan's Cooperative Granaries in the Later HaIf of the Japanese Colonial Period

本文探討的主題─合作農倉─是指日治時期後半（1922－1942）由合作社（產業組合）經營的農倉，包括農業倉庫和米穀倉庫兩類。本文首先追述這兩類農倉的設立及其倉容量的變化。為了瞭解這些農倉的功能，本文分析臺灣和日本的米價變動，發現在整個日治時期兩地的米價變動方向相同，而且無顯著的季節變動趨勢，顯示兩地米市場高度的整合。本文進一步分析農倉容量、臺米輸日及日本米價等三項變數間的相關關係。數據顯示在1922－1932年間，倉容量與輸日量之變動有高度的相關關係，1933年以後配合日本當局執行米穀統制政策，輸日米量減少，而倉容量則持續擴大，合作農倉適時發揮了儲藏的作用。要之，由於臺灣和日本兩地米市場的高度整合，這些合作農倉的主要功能不在於直接平抑市場的米價，而是透過較好的儲藏與調製設備以保證出口米的品質。

This is a study of the granaries operated by cooperative associations in the later half of the Japanese colonial period (1922-1942). These granaries consisted of two types: agricultural and rice granaries. I first trace the establishment and growth of these granaries. In order to find out the major function of these granaries, I compared the price of rice in Taiwan and Japan and found that their movement was highly correlated. I also found that the exports of Taiwanese rice to Japan fluctuated with the demand for it in the Japanese market. Furthermore, the capacity of these granaries was highly correlated to the exports of Taiwanese rice from 1922 to 1932. After 1933, however, the capacity of these granaries continued to increase while the amount of exports decreased, implying that these granaries expanded their capacities as a response to the policy of export control conducted by the Japanese colonial government during this time. Since the rice markets of Taiwan and Japan were highly integrated, this study suggests that the major function of cooperative granaries, with better facilities for storage and preparation, was to improve the quality of Taiwanese rice exports rater that to stabilize directly the price of rice in the market.