評論
打印
If there was one thing 18th-century British gentlemen thought they knew more about than Port or racehorses, it was liberty.
十八世紀的英國紳士們自恃比波特酒和賽馬了解更多的，莫過于自由。
They basked in it. It was the reward, they told themselves, for nearly a century of civil wars.
他們醉心于此。他們將其視為百年內戰的戰利品。
It helped make Britain the freest country in the world, safe from Catholic tyranny, absolute monarchs and standing armies.
正是內戰使英國成為最自由的國度，遠離宗教迫害，君主專制，以及強制兵役。
Liberty was their religion. They built temples in their gardens devoted to it. They even wrote it a hymn.
自由便是他們的信仰。人們在花園中建造廟宇弘揚它。甚至將它寫進頌歌。
Pity the rest of the enslaved world, deprived of its manifold blessings!
很遺憾其余的世界仍深陷奴役的枷鎖，被剝奪了本應享有的各種幸福！
But the real payoff of liberty had been riches and power from around the globe.
而自由帶來的真正甜頭是引領世界的財富和權勢。
With liberty had come trade. Trade had wrought perhaps the most staggering transformation of national power in all British history.
貿易緊隨自由前來。也許正是貿易賦予了英國史無前例的權力巔峰。
From being a tiny outcrop of insignificant islands off the north-west coast of Europe, Britain had expanded into a global power.
原本只是位于歐洲西北一隅毫不起眼的島國，最終發展成了世界強國。
The shadow of Britannia now fell across America, the Caribbean, the Indian Subcontinent. It had taken barely a century.
大不列顛的影響如今遍布美洲、加勒比海、印度次大陸。一切都只花了一個世紀。
And, unlike the Roman Empire they so admired, they dreamt of a British Empire that would endure. One based on trade, not on conquest.
不同于深受敬仰的羅馬帝國，英國人夢想建立一個不朽的大英帝國。以貿易為紐帶，而不單是征服。
It would be an empire of liberty, they thought, Britain writ large, sharing its bounty with the world.
這將是一個以自由著稱的帝國，英國將慷慨地與世界分享她的饋贈。
So, how was it that in just over a century, the people that thought of themselves as the freest on earth ended up subjugating much of the world's population?
所以，在短短一百多年中，一個標榜自由的民族怎會逐漸將大半個世界征服于腳下？
How was it that a nation which had such mistrust of military power ended up the biggest military power of all?
而一個對軍權懷有深深戒意的國家怎會最終坐擁最強的軍事霸權？
How was it that the empire of the free turned into the empire of slaves?
一個稱頌自由的國度又怎么會演變成奴役的帝國？
How was it that profit seemed to turn not on freedom, but on raw coercion?
而利益也似乎并不來源于自由，恰恰來自高壓統治？
How was it that we ended up with the wrong empire?
帝國又是如何逐步走進歧路的？
