Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau

The monopoly system was the Government-General's principal means of making colonial Taiwan pay for itself. Established as part of the colonial administration of Taiwan, the Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau (臺灣總督府専売局) was a powerful government agency that held exclusive control over several economically vital commodities. The monopoly system was introduced gradually: opium in 1897, camphor in 1899, salt in 1899, tobacco in 1905, and alcohol in 1922. The first three were run by separate offices until they were merged as the Monopoly Bureau in June 1901; matches and weights and measures were added in 1942 and petroleum in 1943. Chinese-language sources state that monopoly income at one point reached about 40 percent of the Government-General's revenue.

The monopolies differed in character. The opium monopoly derived from the "gradual prohibition" policy of civil administrator Gotō Shinpei, under which the state manufactured opium and licensed smokers; nominally intended to reduce consumption, it long served as a revenue source and from the 1920s was criticised by the Taiwanese People's Party and at the League of Nations. The camphor monopoly gave the Government-General control of the natural camphor that then dominated the world market, and was closely tied to its policies towards the indigenous highlands and the advance of the guard line. The tobacco and alcohol monopolies touched everyday consumption and curtailed Taiwanese-run brewing.

The bureau operated numerous factories, warehouses, and distribution networks across Taiwan, generating substantial revenue for the colonial government. Its headquarters near Taipei's South Gate, designed by Moriyama Matsunosuke and built in stages between 1913 and 1922, continued to house the postwar monopoly authority and is a national monument. Major plants included the South Gate factory for camphor and opium, the Taipei brewery (now Huashan 1914 Creative Park), the Taipei tobacco factory and the Songshan tobacco factory built in the late 1930s (now Songshan Cultural and Creative Park).

During World War II, the bureau's production facilities — particularly its alcohol factories — were redirected to support the war effort by manufacturing industrial alcohol and butanol for synthetic fuels and military applications, and monopoly profits helped fund the war. After the surrender the bureau was taken over by the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office as the Taiwan Provincial Monopoly Bureau. On February 27, 1947 its agents, seizing contraband cigarettes in Taipei, injured a vendor and shot a bystander, sparking the February 28 Incident. It was reorganised that year as the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau and became the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation in 2002.