American Economic History: A Dance to the Markets of Time
美国经济史：与市场合拍的舞蹈
How America’s pilgrims made progress
赴美朝圣者的进程
Bhu Srinivasan’s new book, “Americana”, is a delightful tour through the businesses and industries that turned America into the biggest economy in the world. Not only is the book written in a light and informative style, it is cleverly constructed. Each chapter has a theme – tobacco, cotton, steam, oil, bootlegging, mobile telephones and so on – and these themes are organised to lead the reader through a chronological history of the American economy.
布·斯里尼瓦桑的新书《美国史》引领读者回顾了让美国成为世界最大经济体的工商业发展。这是一次愉悦的旅程。本书笔调轻松、内容翔实，而且构思巧妙。每一章都有一个主题——烟草、棉花、蒸汽、石油、制贩私酒和移动电话等，这些主题的编排是为引导读者了解美国经济的编年史。
Along the way, there is plenty of surprising detail. Until the First World War, for example, the Busch family (who produced Budweiser beer) held a big annual celebration for the Kaiser’s birthday. Bill Levitt, the builder who pioneered the post-1945 shift to suburban living, was one of many who refused to sell homes to African-Americans. To finance their new company, Apple Computer, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak respectively sold a VW minibus and a Hewlett-Packard calculator.
在这趟旅程中，读者会获知许多令人惊讶的细节。例如，直到第一次世界大战爆发之前，生产百威啤酒的布希家族每年都会隆重庆祝德国皇帝的生日。建筑商比尔·莱维特（Bill Levitt）在1945年后引领了搬往郊区居住的潮流，却也是拒绝将房子卖给非裔美国人的众多房产商之一。为了筹钱创办苹果电脑公司，史蒂夫·乔布斯卖掉了自己的大众小巴，史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克（Steve Wozniak）卖掉了一台惠普计算器。
But Mr Srinivasan, himself an immigrant who became an entrepreneur, never lets the detail interfere with the bigger picture. As he notes, European settlement in America was originally driven by commercial imperative. In 1606 the British chartered the Virginia Company of London as a profit-seeking operation; an early version of “venture capital”. The pilgrims on the Mayflower were backed by English financiers.
但斯里尼瓦桑（本身是移民，而后成为一名企业家）从不会让细节影响对全局的描绘。他指出，欧洲对美洲的殖民最初是由商业上的迫切需求所驱动。1606年，伦敦弗吉尼亚公司获英王特许从事营利性运作——一种早期版本的“风险资本”。“五月花”号上的朝圣者是由英国的金融资本家资助的。
Commerce played a decisive part in setting the course of American history. The first settlers struggled but eventually a lucrative business was found; growing and exporting tobacco in the southern states. But the early planters developed a taste for luxuries, placing them in debt to English creditors. That proved to be one source of resentment towards the colonial power; another irritation was British efforts to earn some revenue after the expense of the Seven Years’ War (1756-63), which ended French attempts to control the continent. The result, inevitably perhaps, was the American war of independence.
在确定美国历史的走向上，商业起了决定性的作用。第一批殖民者举步维艰，但最终找到了一门利润丰厚的生意——在南方各州种植烟草并出口。但早期的种植者爱上了奢侈品，这让他们欠了英国人的债。这一点最终成为了他们怨恨英国殖民统治的根源之一。而另一个刺激因素是，英国经过开支不菲的“七年战争”（1756年至1763年），终于让法国控制美洲大陆的企图落空，此后英国力图从殖民地赚回一些收入。这可能无可避免地导致了美国独立战争的爆发。
The plantation economy developed in the southern states, and the initial political dominance of Virginia (which provided four of America’s first five presidents) ensured the continued survival of slavery in the newly independent country. By 1860 auction prices suggested that the collective value of American slaves was $4bn at a time when the federal government’s annual budget was around $69m. That explains both why southern slaveowners, many of whom had borrowed against their slaves as collateral, would never give up the practice, and why a financial settlement of the issue was out of the question.
在南部各州发展起来的种植园经济以及弗吉尼亚州最初的政治主导地位（美国前五任总统中有四位出自该州）确保了奴隶制在美国这个新独立的国家中继续存在。到1860年，拍卖价格显示美国奴隶的价值总计40亿美元，而当时联邦政府的年度预算约为6900万美元。从中可看出为什么南方奴隶主（其中许多人抵押奴隶来贷款）绝不会放弃奴隶制，而且这个问题不可能通过财政手段来解决。
The resulting civil war hastened the industrialisation of the northern states, which owed their victory, in part, to their greater economic strength. In the late 19th century American companies were able to exploit the economies of scale that came from trading over a continent-wide country. This allowed them to overtake their British and German rivals.
在由此引发的内战中，北方取得的胜利部分要归功于其较强的经济实力。而内战又加速了北方各州的工业化进程。19世纪末，美国公司得以利用在整个美洲大陆开展贸易的规模经济。这使它们能够超越英国和德国的对手。
In time, the growth of these industrial giants, or trusts as they were known, led to another political spat, as a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, tried to challenge monopoly power. It was under the first Roosevelt that America pulled decisively away from a laissez-faire approach, setting up the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act to protect consumers. A much bigger shift occurred under his relative, Franklin Roosevelt, who pursued aggressive policy intervention and established a welfare system in the course of the Great Depression.
随着时间的推移，这些工业巨头（被称为“托拉斯”）的发展引发了又一次政治争端：共和党总统西奥多·罗斯福试图挑战垄断势力。在这第一位罗斯福总统的任内，美国果断摈弃了放任主义的做法，制定了《纯净食品与药品法案》和《联邦肉类检验法案》以保护消费者。而在他的亲戚富兰克林·罗斯福任内发生的变化还要大得多：这位总统推行积极的干预政策，并在经济大萧条期间建立起了福利制度。
As Mr Srinivasan observes, American capitalism has always had a strong input from the state: the tariffs that shielded industry in the 19th century; the military expenditure that helped develop radio, satellites and the internet; farm subsidies; the federal guarantees for bank deposits and home loans; and so on. “It was an endlessly calibrated balance between state subsidies, social programmes, government contracts, regulation, free will, entrepreneurship and free markets,” he writes. In short, American economic history is more complex than some ideologues seek to portray it; this excellent book gives readers a fully rounded picture.
正如斯里尼瓦桑指出的，美国的资本主义一向都有来自政府的强有力的投入：19世纪时保护工业的关税、帮助发展了广播、卫星和互联网的军费开支、农业补贴、联邦对银行存款和住房贷款的担保等等。他写道：“这是国家补贴、社会项目、政府合同、监管、自由意志、企业家精神和自由市场之间不断校准的平衡。”总之，美国经济史比一些思想家试图描绘的更为复杂，这部优秀的著作为读者展现了一幅完整而全面的图景。
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