The late Lin Heng-tao, chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Documents Commission, has described how the mining industry developed. The basic Japanese policy toward Taiwan was to create "an industrial Japan and an agricultural Taiwan." Taiwanese were not permitted to organize companies, and it was even less possible for them to borrow money from banks to invest in industry or commerce.
已故的前台灣省文獻會主委林衡道曾經指出，日本對台灣的政策是「工業日本、農業台灣」，台灣人要組織公司是不被允許的，要向銀行借錢來投資工商活動更不可能。