跨國貿易與文化仲介：跨政權下臺南第一富紳王雪農的出現（1880-1905）

Cross-national Trade and Cultural Brokers: The Emergence of Wang Xuenong, the Richest Gentleman in Tainan during Regime Transition (1880-1905)

晚清臺灣的砂糖貿易，由於消費偏好，逐漸出現安平糖大多輸往華中以北，而打狗糖進口至日本的現象。過去以來，卻較少注意糖出口地的差異，是否也讓臺南和打狗的糖商有不同的異族觀和國際觀，進而對於日本領有臺灣有不一樣的因應和經營策略。特別是1870年代之後，這一群親自到日本、香港進行跨國貿易的打狗商人，對於晚清臺灣商業文化所進行的改造及其歷史意義。其次，領臺初期，一直面臨漢人武裝抗日，而必須鞏固政權的臺灣總督府，與曾經親身體驗明治維新的臺灣商人又有何關係，也較缺乏關注。再者，臺灣是一個海島，商業貿易向來是經濟發展的火車頭，但是這群從事跨國貿易商人的經營策略和思想如何面臨傳統和現代交織的大時代變局；他們又如何變成臺灣總督府和地方社會之間的文化仲介，進而擴張事業版圖，提升社會地位，仍有待深究。 本文即以明治年間臺灣赫赫有名的糖商王雪農為例，試圖闡釋在臺灣割讓給日本、眾多商人巨族紛紛逃回中國之際，這群早在明治維新初期已經到日本進行貿易的糖商，為何以及如何採取不同的經營策略，擴展企業版圖，成為臺南重量級富紳。首先，說明國際貿易與商人去留選擇的關係；其次，論證為何王雪農選擇由打狗入主臺灣經濟中心、第一大城市臺南府城，以及初期事業的開展。第三，從跨國貿易與文化仲介的角度，分析他如何迅速變成臺南第一富紳。

n Taiwan' s sugar trade during the late Qing dynasty, due to consumer preferences, Anping sugar gradually came to be mostly exported to the region north of Central China, and Takow sugar to Japan. In the past, little attention has been paid to whether these differences in sugar export destinations led Tainan and Takow' s sugar merchants to hold different views on other peoples and on the world, and thus to have different responses to and management strategies for the ceding of Taiwan to Japan. Especially after the 1870s, the group of Takow merchants who personally went to Japan and Hong Kong to conduct cross-national trade transformed Taiwan' s commercial culture in the late Qing period and its historical significance; they are worth examining. Secondly, there is little scholarship on the relationship between the Taiwan' s Governor-General' s Office, which in the early days of Japanese rule faced armed resistance by Han people and had to consolidate its dominance, and those Taiwanese businessmen who had experienced the Meiji Restoration firsthand. Furthermore, Taiwan is an island, and commercial trade has always been the locomotive of economic development. However, how the business strategies and ideas of this group of transnational traders confronted the great changes of this era, changes in which tradition and modernity were intertwined, remains to be studied. How they became political and cultural brokers between the Taiwan Governor-General' s Office and local society, and then expanded their business territory and enhanced their social status are questions even more deserving of attention. This article takes the famous sugar merchant Wang Xuenong, who traded between Taiwan and Japan during the Meiji era, as an example. It attempts to explain how and why this sugar merchant, who had already traded in Japan as early as the Meiji Restoration, adopted different business strategies to expand his business territory and emerged as a major figure of wealth and social status in Tainan at the time when Taiwan was ceded to Japan and many merchants and important clans fled back to China. First, it explains the relationship between international trade and the choice of businessmen either to leave or to stay in Taiwan. Secondly, it demonstrates why Wang Xuenong chose to move from Takow to prefectural capital of Tainan (Fucheng), which was Taiwan' s economic center and largest city, and the initial development of his career. Third, from the perspective of cross-national trade and cultural brokership, it analyzes how he quickly became the richest gentleman in Tainan.