Exploring the dynamics of development and dependency, this work traces the experience of Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule. Chih-Ming Ka shows how, unlike other sugar-producing colonies, Taiwan was able to sustain its indigenous family farms and small-scale rice millers.

Focusing on Taiwans success, the author reassesses theories of capitalist transformation of colonial agriculture and reconceptualizes the relationship between colonial and indigenous socioeconomic and political forces. Considering the influence of sugar on the evolution of family farms and the contradictory relationship between sugar and rice production, he explores the interplay of class forces to explain the unique experience of colonial Taiwan. }

Introduction
Land Tenure, Class Relations, and the State in Pre-Colonial Taiwan (16831895)
The Colonial State, Foreign Capital, and the Articulation of Indigenous Agriculture
Family Farms and the Formation of Surplus Extraction Mechanisms by Sugar Capital
The Contradictory Relationship Between Rice
and Sugar
Conclusion