日據台灣農業發展的經驗爲重新審視馬克斯/新民粹派及其它有關家庭農場之辯論提供了一個良好的基礎。台灣經驗驅使我們同時拒斥古典馬克斯派及新民粹派的觀點。古典馬克斯派持直線無產化(linear proletarianization)的決定論觀點：預測家庭農場必將爲資本主義大農場所瓦解，若不是變成一無所有的受雇勞工就是轉化成半無產階級農民——在外表上保持家庭農場的形式，而實質上却已成爲資本主義農場或工業的勞力供應者。新民粹派則直視農民經濟爲另一種生產模式，強調家庭農場特異之經濟理性使它們具有競爭上的優越性因而在資本主義經濟當道之下仍能強靱地存活下去。在仔細硏究日據台灣的家庭農場與糖業資本之後我們檢討了以上兩種觀點並提出了不同的理論架構來了解資本主義經濟下的家庭農場。台灣經驗顯示家庭農場並不是如古典馬克斯派所稱的是封建時代的殘餘註定要逐漸瓦解而納入資本主義的雇傭關係內，也不是如新民粹派所強調的仰仗著自我剝削式的經營而得以卓然獨立於資本主義經濟外自成一種生產模式。對於前者我們對日據台灣的土地所有關係及農業經營方式的深入觀察已然顯示直線無產化論並沒有事實根據。然而這並不表示我們就可以接受其反面的新民粹派觀點逕直認定農民特異的經濟理性就是它們存活下去的唯一原因。我們文中一再明確點出家庭農場與農企業資本間緊密的關係。除了市場控制外，資本爲圖進一步掌握家庭農場，它採行了多重途徑。我們對日據台灣蔗糖生產的硏究指出糖業資本支配下的垂直集中促成高生產力的家庭耕作農業，同時也擴大了大資本對這些家庭農場的控制。水平集中的資本主義式雇工大農場反而因農民抗拒及經營上的困難比較不符合會社的利益。基於謀利的意圖，壟斷性的製糖企業大規模投資於農業並發展及推廣適合家庭農場運作之技術。資本透過垂直集中的方式不但沒有摧毀家庭農場，反而是再造之而予以充份利用。資本主義經濟擴展的過程中，家庭農場(以及其它以家庭爲生產及消費單位的小商品生產(petty commodity production))多少可以找到它們得以存活的空間，但這並不全然歸因於它們特殊的經濟理性，資本經營的方式才是決定它們基本的生產條件以及是否能存活的眞正原因。

Agrarian development in colonial Taiwan provides a basis for a critical reexamination of Marxist, neo-populist, and other debates on the family farm. The Taiwan evidence forces us to reject both classical Marxist and neo-populist approaches. The classical Marxist viewpoint predicts either the dissolution of family farms, and their replacement by capitalist farms, or the transformation of family farms into mere suppliers of cheap labor to capitalist farms or industry. The neo-populist viewpoint, while correctly underlining the persistence of family farms, fails to spell out the integral linkage between family farms and agro-industrial capital; it also tends to slight the extensive domination of the former by the latter by mechanisms other than market, control.
On the basis of a careful study of rural class differentiation and family farms in the colonial economy, I propose an alternative framework to comprehend the role of family farms in a capitalist economy. In colonial Taiwan, the vertical concentration, which relied upon a highly productive family farming agriculture and was made possible by the control of family farms by sugar capital, better fit sugar capitalists' profit-making objectives, than did a system of horizontal concentration in capitalist plantations. The capacity to extract a substantial surplus from highly productive family farms allowed the agro-industry to secure necessary profits to accumulate capital. The result is a preponderance of vertical, over horizontal concentration in sugar
production in colonial Taiwan.