New sources reveal that the catalyst for a once-mysterious revolt by Chinese farmers in Dutch colonial Taiwan was an unusually dry year, which caused a disappointing sugar harvest. The resulting lower income within the farming community, in conjunction with an obligatory poll tax, placed the Chinese sugar producers indebted to the Dutch in an unbearable situation. Forced to default on their loans, the farmers viewed revolt as their sole recourse.

The Dutch East India Company exported many deerskins to Japan from its base of operations in Taiwan during the mid-seventeenth century. The accepted wisdom is that this commercial activity led to the extinction of Taiwan's deer population. Analysis of the Company's export data, however, reveals that its system of regulated hunting included a form of wildlife conservation based on self-interest.