以往討論清代臺灣市場主要從具體的市街鎮港的產生、變遷和建構等級體系切入，並以港口系統指稱為市場圈／交易圈（市場區）。然而將具體的市街鎮港等同於抽象的市場圈／交易圈（市場區）時，卻未能釐清所謂的圈在哪裡。解決之道，應是進行市場整合研究。本文以十九世紀先後稱為淡水廳、臺北府的北部臺灣地區為個案，利用「清代糧價資料庫」中十九世紀未分府前的臺灣府和分府後的臺北府米價資料，以及兩種帳簿－淡水河下游平原的《道光二十二年歲次壬寅吉置廣記總抄簿》、竹塹《敕封粵東義民祀典簿》中的米價資料，透過米價相關分析，證明本區無論是區內之間或本區與全臺之間，從糧食市場來看，十九世紀北臺地區的大部分已統合為一個糧食市場區。

By "the Tamsui area" people lived during Qing Dynasty meant Tamsui River region and old Hsinchu region. The Tamsui area was known to produce rice and shipped large quantities of surplus rice abroad via Baliben, Tamsui and other ports since the beginning of land development in Qing Dynasty. Some people consider indirectly that there is low/no market integration in Tamsui area because the route of grain transportation mostly depends on westward waterway in this area. Also many scholars claim that the market system was equivalent to port/town system in Tamsui area. But these views are little convincing. I use four different rice price series to analyze the level of market integration in northern Taiwan area. Two rice price series are Taiwan prefecture (before Taiwan being divided to two prefectures) and Taipei prefecture (after Taiwan being divided to two prefectures) in nineteenth-century from the Grain Price Database of Qing Dynasty, and another two are account books from Tamsui River region and old Hsinchu region. In my study the northern Taiwan can be considered as an area of high market integration.