本文指出一般社會對日據時期台灣經濟史的四種誤解 : (1) 台灣的經濟發展源起於日據時期；(2) 日據以前的發展根源為台灣相對於大陸特有的傳統；(3) 日據時期台灣的經濟發展全由日本政府與日商所把持；(4) 日據時期對戰後的影響 很小。相對於這些誤解，本文指出：日據時期台灣經濟的發展有日據以前的台灣所留下的深厚根源，這種根源還是中國幾千年農商並行發展的傳統的一個延伸。這個傳統在日據台灣時期與日本政府在台灣發展以農商為主的經濟政策互相奧援，而為戰後台灣留下一個相當深厚，而且是其現代農商經濟飽受戰爭摧殘的中國大陸迥然不同的經濟基礎。

　　　　　This paper points out four common misunderstandings of the economic history of Japanese colonial Taiwan. They are; (1) Taiwan's economic development initiated from the Japanese colonial period; (2) the historical origin for Taiwan's economic development prior to the Japanese occupation was unique for Taiwan as compared with mainland Chian; (3) The economic development of Japanese colonial Taiwan has been fulley monopolized by Japanese government and Japanese merchants; (4) There remains few heritage from the colonial rule to postwar Taiwan. To halt these misunderstandings, this paper point out: There remains deep historical legacy from pre-colonial Taiwan to colonial Taiwan; such historical legacy can be traced back to mainland China's development for several thousand years; such legacy was reinforced by Japanese colonial policy which emphasized the grass-root development of agriculture and commerce. It left postwar Taiwan a much more abundant heritage than mainland China in the same period which had been seriously ravaged by war.