When foreign merchants came to Taiwan they discovered three agricultural products highly suited for export: tea, sugar, and camphor. Through the intermediary of foreign merchants, trade in these goods-known as "the three treasures of Taiwan" -boomed, and they remained the main exports right up into the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945).
外商來台後發現，台灣的茶、糖、樟腦三大農產品很適於出口，號稱「台灣三寶」，這三大產業在外商的推波助瀾下蓬勃發展，一直到日治時代都是輸出主力。