歷史學者中村孝志分析荷治時期台灣的財政盈虧，認爲荷蘭人在台 灣的經營大體上是成功的，特別是在末期，年年均有相當利潤。不 過，1662年荷蘭人被鄭成功打敗撤離台灣之後，荷蘭巴達維亞總部 的評估是，對公司最有利的作法不是奪回台灣，而是另尋一地作爲 轉口貿易據點。這與上述的結論似乎並不一致。以往的研究已經指 出，荷蘭東印度公司帳簿上的盈虧並不能反映殖民地經營之成效。 本文分析荷治時期台灣的轉口貿易與產業發展，重新估算1630年 代中期之後台灣殖民地之利潤，並解釋爲何荷蘭人無意再奪回台灣。

Department of Economics, National Taiwan University From an analysis of Dutch Taiwan’s budget Nakamura (1964) concluded that the VOC's colonial management of Taiwan was successful, especially during the later period. However, after Koxinga defeated the Dutch in 1662, the Dutch East India Company had no intention to recover Taiwan. This seemed to be inconsistent with Nakamura’s conclusion. In this paper, I first argue that Taiwan’s official budget data are not suitable for judging the successfulness of the colonial management. From a re-estimation of the trade and domestic production data, I then show that the colonial management was not profitable, and explain why the Dutch were not interested in retaking Taiwan.