Commodity pricing within empires was complex during the twentieth century, with colonies influencing changes in goods prices in the metropole. However, historical research analysing the mutual relationship between the economies of metropoles and colonies is scarce, while previous studies have tended to overlook the pricing of colonial rice. This study examines the economic ties between metropoles and their colonies within empires after the Great Depression, focusing on the rice price linkage between Japan and Taiwan. During the 1930s, Japan and Taiwan experienced political conflict, as the metropole’s market participants regarded colonial products as the cause of the deteriorating market conditions. Japan’s reliance on the supply of primary products from its colonies deepened in the bloc economy. This imperial political action conferred the power to alter the prices in the metropole’s market to the colonial market. The economic ties within the empire then metamorphosed into a mutual relationship, albeit partially; however, alienation between the governing and economic relationships emerged, leading to conflicts within the empire.