A tale of two rushes 英汉.doc

A tale of two rushes美国的两次经济热潮Theres gold in them there wells从井中捞金WHEN his neighbour discovered gold in a Californian river in 1848, Sam Brannan could have kept quiet about it. Instead, he filled a jar with gold dust and rushed around the streets of San Francisco shouting “Gold! Gold! Gold!” He had good reason to incite a gold rush: he owned a shop nearby. He became Californias first millionaire by selling picks, shovels, beans and bacon to the horde of prospectors who heeded his call.1848年，山姆布兰南的邻居在加利福尼亚河发现了黄金，山姆布兰南本来可以保守这个秘密。但山姆布兰南却带着一罐砂金在旧金山街道到处转悠，并大喊大叫“金子！金子！”。山姆布兰南的行为引发了美国的淘金热；实际上，山姆的商店就在发现砂金的地点的附近，他向闻讯而来的众多淘金者出售锄头、铁铲、咖啡豆、腌肉等商品，没过多久，山姆就成为了加利福尼亚的第一位百万富翁。Gold fever spread fast. The lure of buried treasure “sucked nearly every free hand and available arm to the gold mines”, observes H.W. Brands in “The Age of Gold”, a brilliant history of the period. “They tore themselves from warm hearths and good homes, promising to return; they fled from cold hearts and bad debts, vowing never to return.” The Alta California, a local paper, reported that “The whole countryresounds to the sordid cry of gold! GOLD! GOLD!” It added that this would be the last issue for a while, since all its staff were heading for the gold fields.淘金热迅速向外传播。按照HW布兰兹所著的黄金年代一书对此描述道：“淘金热吸引了每一个自由人带着武器前往金矿。他们要么从自己温暖的家前往加利福尼亚，并告诉家人他们一定会回来，要么从冰冷的住处逃离，以躲避债主，并发誓再也不回来了。”。上加利福尼亚是当地的一份报纸，该报对淘金热有如此报道：“整个美国都回荡着金子！金子的疯狂叫喊声。”上加利福尼亚”上加利福尼亚还对此标注：本报将暂停出版，因为我们的员工也都去淘金了。Americas current shale-energy boom has plenty in common with the gold rush, and might prove as momentous. It has created a gusher of wealth in remote places. It has lured young men to wild frontier towns, such as Williston, North Dakota. Jim Cramer, a television host, sounded just like Brannan when he reported from North Dakota in 2011. “This new black gold rush is just getting started!” he bellowed, against a backdrop of nodding donkeys. “Listen, people in this country who need a job, get up here!”美国现在的页岩能源热潮与美国19世纪的淘金热有着诸多共同点，极有可能在历史上留下重要的一笔。页岩能源热潮创造了美国边远地区有巨大财富传说，让美国年轻人义无反顾地前往威利斯顿、北达科达这样的美国边境小镇。在2011年，美国电视节目主持人吉米克莱曼在北达科达镇做出了如下报道：“黑色页岩能源开启的新淘金热时代，听着，要是想在美国找一份工作，到这来！”吉米克莱曼报道时大声说出了这些话，而在他后面不远处，就走着一群驴。Unlike the Alta California, not all of The Economists writers have headed for the frontier. But one correspondent, intrigued by the parallels between the two booms, put on stout boots, packed a copy of “The Age of Gold” and set off for Williston.当年的上加利福尼亚将所有的记者都派到加利福尼亚州的边境小镇，现在经济学人杂志无法做到这一点，但我们经济学人的一名同事，对美国两次经济热潮的特点所吸引，穿起皮靴，带上一本黄金年代，前往美国威利斯顿小镇。For the 49ersas the men who hurried west in that year became knownthe trek to California was arduous. “Mules old enough to travel well were unavailable at any price,” writes Brands. Prospectors who made their way overland went “at the pace of the slowest oxen pulling their wagons, no more than two miles 3.2km per hour”. Many succumbed to cholera, thirst or Indian arrows. One group, on escaping from the most godforsaken tract of the Mojave desert, doffed their hats, turned back and said: “Goodbye, Death Valley!” “The name stuck,” notes Brands.对于在1849年匆匆前往加利福尼亚金矿的淘金者而言，他们的路途充满了艰辛。布兰兹在黄金年代如此写道：“那些年龄足够进行长途跋涉的骡子，人们花钱也买不到了。”“很多淘金者只能用牛来拉四轮马车，一小时仅能走上两英里。很多淘金者不是死于霍乱和缺水，就被印第安人用箭射死。”“一队淘金者从莫哈韦沙漠走出后，他们拿下自己的帽子，向后面的沙漠说道：再见了，死亡谷！”布兰兹备注道：“这就是死亡谷的来历。”The journey to North Dakota today is more straightforward. Still, when your correspondent tried to reserve a rental car at Bismarck airport, they were sold out. He eventually found a pickup truck. Driving it through the Badlands was hairy: hundreds of huge oil lorries kept thundering in the opposite direction along narrow country roads. The pickup went much faster than an ox wagon, except in the traffic jam outside Williston, which looked like a long, motionless steel snake festooned with lights. A sign offered a cheerful welcome to “Boomtown, USA”.现在，通往北达科达的道路可要好多了。可是，我们的同事试图在俾斯麦机场租一辆汽车时，那里是无车可租；好在他最终找到了一辆皮卡，这才启程前往北达科达。当他开着皮卡行驶在荒漠里的国道上，数百辆大型油罐拖车轰鸣着迎面驶来，让他感到有点胆战心惊。他驾驶的皮卡比当年的牛拉的四轮马车快多了；他在威利斯顿外围遇到了堵车，很多汽车停在了国道上，这些汽车看起来像是一条用灯光装饰到钢铁长蛇。在堵车时，他看到了威利斯顿的一个欢迎牌：“美国繁荣之镇”。Men behaving badly采矿的男人不怎么样The communities formed by the two groups of migrants have some striking similarities. For gold miners in California, life was almost as rough as the journey west had been. San Francisco in the summer of 1849 looked like “the bivouac of an army on the move”, writes Brands; most of the buildings “were actually tents”. The miners smelled awful. No one “could be bothered to wash dirty underwear, only to wash gold”.如果将现在的页岩石油矿矿工和淘金热时代的金矿矿工相比较，人们就会吃惊地发现他们之间有着诸多的共同点。在淘金热时代，加利福尼亚金矿矿工的生活极其困难，艰苦程度丝毫不亚于他们来加利福尼亚州的路途受到的苦难。布兰兹在黄金年代如此写道：在1849年夏季，旧金山看起来像是一支行军途中的宿营地，遍地都是帐篷。实际上，此时加利福尼亚的建筑大多都是帐篷。挖金矿的矿工浑身散发着臭味，“他们忙得只能洗金沙，连洗一下自己的脏内衣的时间都没有。”Workers in Williston today generally have it easierthough newcomers sometimes sleep in their cars, which is not advisable in the winter, when temperatures often drop below minus 20C. Places to stay are scarce and expensive. Many oil workers live in “man camps”, which look like college dormitories that have been built in a hurry. The companies that run them, such as Target Logistics of Texas, prefer the term “crew camps” to man camps; it sounds less burly and tattooed. But who are they kidding? When The Economistvisited Tioga Lodge, one of Targets camps, 99% of the 930 residents were male.现在，工作在威利斯顿的矿工的生活要好多了，尽管新来的人有时不得不在车里睡觉。在威利斯顿，在车里过夜时不明智的，因为当地的室外最低温度能达到零下20C。实际上，威利斯顿没有多少旅馆。很多石油矿工只能住在“矿工营地”，那是一种匆匆建起来到建筑，看起来像是大学宿舍。而管理这些建筑的公司，如田纳西目的物流公司，不愿将这种建筑为“矿工营地”，他们将其称为“员工营地”。“员工”听起来没有“矿工”那么粗鲁，不会让人想到满身纹身的矿工形象。实际上，谁会真正在意这些？当我们的同事采访田纳西目的物流公司的一个名叫“泰奥加旅馆”的营地时，他发现住在该营地的99%员工都是男性。It is a bare-bones place for men who work long, sweaty hours to sleep and eat. Happily the food is free and unlimited. The kitchens chop up vast quantities of meat into portions just small enough to fit on a plate. “They eat a lot,” says the chief cook, Jeff Ball, who used to cater for troops in Afghanistan. Some workers heap their trays with meat and potatoes in the dining room, then walk over to the cafeteria to load up with burgers, hot dogs and pizza. Your correspondent, at the salad bar, felt lonely.“泰奥加旅馆”的空间非常小，只是让矿工在从事了长时间重体力工作后，有了个睡觉和吃饭的地方。但石油公司提供给矿工的食物是免费和不限量的，这算是件让人感到高兴的事情。厨房将大块肉分成小块，让人可以将肉装进盘子。主厨名叫杰夫波尔，他告诉记者：“他们吃得可多了。”杰夫玻尔曾是驻阿富汗美军的厨师。我们同事看到一些矿工先在餐厅里将托盘装满肉和土豆，然后走到自助餐厅，将汉堡包、热狗和披萨堆在托盘上；如果有人在沙拉吧吃饭，人们会觉得他肯定不合群。Mr Ball gives the oilmen whatever they want. If they crave blackened catfish and prawn gumbo like mom used to make in Louisiana, they can have it. Likewise if a crew from Mexico wants tamales. The only thing they cant havein the man camp, at leastis alcohol. Oil firms prefer that dangerous machinery be handled by men with clear heads.矿工想吃什么，玻尔他们就给他们做什么。要是矿工们想吃黑鲶鱼和对虾秋葵汤，波尔他们肯定会为他们做出来，这是一道路易斯安那州的大妈们的拿手菜；要是来自墨西哥的矿工们想吃玉米卷，没有任何问题！但有一样东西，石油公司不会提供给矿工，那就是酒。石油公司的采油设备有一定的危险性，操作这些设备的工人必须保持头脑清醒。Too drunk to frack喝醉了，干一架！Life in the gold fields was often violent. Miners drank and gambled and fought. Thieves and ruffians preyed on the weak and unwary. Justice was rough. Brannan, the shop-owner, led a committee of vigilantes. In June 1851 his men caught a gangster stealing a safe. After a two-hour “trial”, they hanged him from a beam in a public square.在淘金热时代，暴力事件层出不穷：金矿矿工喝酒、赌博和打架是常事，而盗贼和流氓专找瘦弱和粗心的矿工下手。当时的执法机构也是胡乱执法：那个名叫山姆布兰南的店主组织了一家治安委员会，在1851年，山姆布兰南带领他的手下抓住了一个偷保险箱的帮派分子，对这名帮派分子只“审判”了两小时，就将其绞死在公共广场。Williston, too, has developed a bareknuckle reputation. “The theft up here is unbelievable,” says a private detective hired by an insurer to investigate the disappearance of 15 truckloads of oil. “A lot of people here are trying to get a piece of the action without working.” And, with so few women in the neighbourhood, many men are frustrated.实际上，威利斯顿的治安也不好。一位私家侦探告诉我们的同事：“这里的盗窃案多得不得了，很多人都想这里捞一把。”事实上，这名私家侦探就是石油公司请来调查15卡车原油失窃案的。此外，石油公司的员工营地没有多少女性，这让很多男性员工感到沮丧。“You put a bunch of guys together, working 12 hours a day, and theyre going to get into fights,” shrugs Josh Wipf, a mechanic from Montana who moved to Williston last year. Mr Wipf, who says the ratio of men to women in Williston “sucks”, admits to having been in a bar fight himself. “It was about a girl, I think. I dont really remember. I was, you know” he trails off.乔希维普伏无奈地耸肩，说道：“当把一群男人集合在一起，连续不停地工作12小时，他们之中肯定会有人打架。”乔希维普伏去年才来到威利斯顿，之前他住在蒙大拿州，他表示威利斯顿的男女比例严重失调，他就曾在酒吧与人打了一架。他回忆道：“那是为了一个女孩打架，但我不记得当时的情形了，我当时你知道的。”“They get rowdy when they get drunk,” says Alice Trottier, a student at Williston State College. “I would never go out jogging alone at night now,” she laments. Like many young females in Williston, she finds it annoying to be stared at all the time. On the plus side, scarcity gives women power. Men “treat you like a princess. They pay for everything,” says Ms Trottier. On a good night waiting tables at a pizza joint she can make $200.艾利斯特罗杰是威利斯顿州立大学的学生，她告诉我们同事：“他们要是喝醉了，就会变得粗暴。现在，我晚上都不敢单独外出。”与其他生活在威利斯顿的女性一样，艾利斯发现自己成天被不怀好意的目光盯着。在另一方面，女性数量的不足，也让女性有了不少特权。特罗蒂尔女士说道：“他们对我象公主一样，他们会买任何东西。”特罗蒂尔之一家披萨店工作，在一个生意不错的晚上，她挣了200美元。In California during the gold rush, many men could only find female company if they paid for it. Life for boomtown prostitutes was rough and risky; some Chinese women, speaking no English, were in effect slaves to their pimps. But others made a lot of money. “At a time when a Paris streetwalker might make the equivalent of $2 a night, some of the Frenchwomen in San Francisco made $400,” writes Brands. Belle Coras brothel on Dupont Street was renowned for fine wine and music as well as sex. “Men with lust in their heartsand gold in their pockets beat a path through the muddy streets to her door, where she made sure they wiped their feet before entering.”在淘金热时期的加利福尼亚州，很多男性只要有钱就能找一名妓女。在当时的新兴城市，妓女生活不仅艰难而且充满了危险。还有一些中国妓女在旧金山，她们不会讲英语，皮条客对她们象奴隶一样。但也有不少妓女挣了大钱。布兰兹在书中写道：“当巴黎的站街女一晚只能挣2美元的时候，在旧金山的一些巴黎妓女一晚能挣400美元。位于旧金山杜邦街的贝拉克拉妓院当时就以优质红酒、音乐和妓女而名声远扬。男人们带着一个色心和口袋里的金子，穿过满是泥泞的街道，来到贝拉克拉妓院，在进门之前，他们得擦干净自己的鞋子。”The same trade exists today in Williston, but with fewer chandeliers and violins. Most paid hookups are probably arranged online: the oil workers all have smartphones. Some practise the oldest profession the old-fashioned way, but this can annoy bystanders. One of the staff at Bubbas Bubbles, a laundry shop, says she “had to kick out” a woman with a pink wig who was accosting male customers in the parking lot.在威利斯顿，仍然有这档子营生，但少了水晶吊灯和小提琴。嫖客和妓女之间的绝大部分交易在网上就敲定了，因为石油工人都有了智能手机。一些妓女还会在公共场合勾搭镖客，但这种方式会引起路人的不满。一位工作在巴布泡沫洗衣店的女性员工表示：“要是有女人带着假发在停车场勾搭男人，我会忍不住把他们提出停车场。”Striking it lucky幸运直击The California gold rush was a low-tech affair. “No capital is required to obtain this gold, as the labouring man wants nothing but his pick, shovel and tin pan,” wrote William Sherman, later a civil-war general, in a missive to President James Polk in 1848. It seemed to offer ordinary people a chance to get rich quick: one man, sifting through the dirt at the bottom of a stream, might conceivably find enough gold to retire on. Not a good chance, mind: only a lucky few prospectors struck the mother lode. The rest typically struggled to find enough ore to cover their expenses; some died poor and sorry, or quit panning to find a steadier job.发生在加利福尼亚州的淘金热没有多少技术含量。1848年，威廉谢尔曼在一份给詹姆斯波尔克总统的公函中对此写道：“淘金不需要什么资本，一个淘金者只要带着锄头、铁铲和淘金盘就能淘金了。”威廉谢尔曼在美国冷战时成为一名将军。普通人看起来有了一个快速致富的机会：只要将一条溪流的淤泥反复地淘选，就能找到足够享用一生的金子。实际上，只有极少数的幸运儿找到金矿主矿脉，绝大部分淘金者找到的金沙只够勉强糊口，一些淘金者过着十分贫困的生活，甚至悲惨地死在了淘金地，还有一些淘金者放弃了找金子的想法，在当地找了一份稳定的工作。Fracking, by contrast, requires capital and expertise. Oil giants such as Statoil and Schlumberger are flocking to North Dakota. They bring pricey, high-tech equipment, from microseismic sensors to drilling rigs that walk, like something out of “Star Wars”. From little frack pads in the middle of vast wheat fields, they can drill four miles down, more than a mile to the side, and, thanks to satellite technology, hit a target three feet across. Then they shoot thousands of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the shale formation, creating hairline fractures in the rockhence the procedures proper name, “hydraulic fracturing”. The sand stops those fractures from closing up when the pressure is turned off.与淘金热相比，采集页岩石油需要大量的资金和技术装备。象挪威国家石油公司和斯伦贝谢公司这样的石油巨头都带着昂贵的高科技采油设备来到了北达科达，这些设备包括微震传感器和可移动钻机，它们看起来像极了电影星球大战里的装备。石油公司将设备安装在巨大的麦田中央，钻探设备能往地下钻探四英里，钻探半径为1英里，并配合使用卫星设备，其准确度能达到3英尺。钻探完成后，石油公司将数千加仑水、沙子和化学物质注入页岩层，让岩层形成发丝状裂缝，这一技术过程被称为“水力压裂法”。当停止向页岩注水时，水中的沙粒能停止岩层裂纹的扩展。But North Dakota rewards ordinary folk, too. The lure is not a slender chance of becoming rich, but the near-certainty of finding a blue-collar job that pays middle-class wages. A roughneck or truck driver can easily make $100,000 a year. (Why did Mr Wipf make the trek from Montana? “Good money.”) Anyone who can pass a drug test can find work.石油巨头在北达科达开采石油的行为也让普通美国人受益他们能在北达科达找到一份中等收入的蓝领工作，但不是一个一夜暴富的小概率机会。在北达科达的油田，哪怕是一个没有专业技能的工人或卡车司机，一年都能轻松挣下10万美元。（为什么乔希维普从蒙大纳要长途跋涉来到北达科达？为了钱！）任何人，只要能通过毒品测试，就能在北达科达油田找到一份工作。And just as the gold rush made shopkeepers and shovelmakers rich, so the spoils of gas are widely spread. A whole economy has sprung up to support the frackers. Someone has to build man camps, roads and schools. North Dakota Developments, a property developer, is trucking ready-made six-room housing units over from Minnesota and erecting them in what used to be a cornfield. Rob Gavin, the boss, says demand is so strong that he expects to recoup the development costs in a single year.淘金热让加利福尼亚的杂货店店主和铁铲商发了大财，同样地，页岩石油也让很多人挣了大钱。页岩石油产业带动了周边产业的繁荣，一些人开始为油田建造营地、道路和学校。一家名为“北达科达发展公司”的房产开发商从明尼苏达州运来已经制造好的六房住宅单元，将这些住宅单元安装到原本是玉米田的采油工地上。罗伯加文是“北达科达发展公司”的老板，他表示：现在对这种房子的需求很多，他的公司只用了一年的时间就收回了成本。The place is growing so fast that, even at boomtown wages, finding workers can be hard. Paul Coppinger, a boss at Weir-SPM, a firm that makes oil and gas pumps, says that only a couple of his 63 staff in Williston are native North Dakotans. The Walmart in town is the messiest your correspondent has ever seen; there are too few hands to tidy the shelves. Workers quit and take better jobs faster than you can say “frack”.页岩石油让当地经济迅速发展，即便是按照新兴城市的标准发工资，人们也很难招到一个工人。保罗科平杰是“韦尔SPM”公司的老板，该公司专门制造油泵和气泵；保罗科平杰表示“韦尔SPM”公司只有63名雇员是北达科达本地人。北达科达的沃尔玛超市是最混乱的，因为当地沃尔玛超市没有足够的人手来清理货架。在北达科达，人们经常在找到一份更好的工作后就马上离开现在的公司，让老板连说：“操蛋！”机会都没有。Theron Amos, the manager of the local Pizza Hut, says he has lost a fifth of his staffin the past week. “I have 20. I need 30,” he sighs, as he wrestles with the cash register and passes the shrieking phone to a colleague. “Oh, man, Ive got more grey hairs than when I started this job.” Would Mr Amos turn any applicant away? “Well, one woman came in and ordered a pitcher of beer before the job interview. I didnt hire her.”西伦阿摩司是当地一家批萨店的经理，他表示他店里的员工在上周走了五分之一。西伦阿摩司说道：“我现在有20个员工，但我实际需要30个员工。”他和我们记者交谈时，一边手忙脚乱地操纵着收银机，一边把响个不停地电话递给他的同事。西伦阿摩司说道：“咳！老兄，我现在的白头发比刚开店的时候多了很多了。”我们的记者问西伦阿摩司是否会拒绝某些求职者，他告诉记者：“是的，曾经有一名女性来我们店里找工作，在面试前，她要了一大罐啤酒，我没有雇佣她。”Sitting on a gold mine坐在金矿上The locals in 19th-century California were not consulted about the gold rush. Many Native Americans, who in previous decades had reached accommodations with Spanish and Mexican settlers, were murdered or infected with unfamiliar diseases. Scorched-earth offensives starved them off their land: since hunting them down was too time-consuming, one white soldier wrote, “It was therefore decided that the best policy was to destroy their huts and stores, with a view of starving them out.” Their descendants live in reservations. Willistons natives are faring rather better.19世纪的淘金热却让加利福尼亚州的美洲土著人深受其害。在西班牙和墨西哥拓荒者来到加利福尼亚的前几十年，由于他们对土著人的屠杀或带来的传染病，加利福尼亚州的美洲土著人已经死了很多人了。当这些拓荒者发现追捕土著人是一件耗时费力的事情，他们用一条毒计将土著人饿死在了加利福尼亚。一位参与追捕土著人的白人士兵写道：“我们因此决定对付土著人的最好办法是摧毁他们的房子和储存的食物，以将他们饿死。”现在，这些美洲土著人的后代仍然生活在“保留地”。与19世纪是加利福尼亚的土著人的遭遇相比，而威利斯顿镇土著人的情况就要好多了。Because they can drill sideways, frackers can suck out the oil and gas under a huge farm while disturbing only a tiny part of it. So the farmer carries on rearing cows as before. The fracking takes place so far underground that he never notices it. But he notices the royalties that the energy firms pay.因为石油公司的设备能在农场边缘钻探油井，石油公司只占用了大型农场的一小块地方就能抽取石油，对农场的生产生活影响甚微；农场主仍然能一如既往地放牧牛群。采油作业通常是抽取地下深层的石油，生活在地面的农场主不会注意到采油活动，但石油公司却提供给农场主优厚的报酬。“Most farms round here have mineral income,” says Tom Rolfstad of the Williston Economic Development office. A farmer with two square miles of land will get a signing bonus of $2.5m and nearly 20% of the gross value of the oil and gas pumped from it, he estimates. A good well can keep producing for 30 years and yield 500,000 barrels of oil. At $100 a barrel, thats $10m for the farmer. Even small landowners benefit. Mr Rolfstad gets regular little cheques for the oil and gas extracted below his modest home.汤姆罗尔夫斯塔特是威利斯顿经济发展办公室的工作人员，他告诉记者：“很多威利斯顿镇的农场主能得到矿产收入。”据汤姆罗尔夫斯塔特估算，一个两平方英里的农场主能得到250万美元的签约金和从其农场抽取石油和天然气毛收入的20%。一口好的油井能连续产油30年，总产量能达到50桶。如果以每桶石油100美元的价格计算，农场主总共能得到1千万美元。即便是小土地的所有者，也能从中获益。汤姆罗尔夫斯塔特家的小土地也有油井，石油公司定期寄给他支票，虽然支票金额不是很多。Many of the ancestors of todays North Dakotans arrived at Ellis Island in the 19th century. “If you were Norwegian, theyd send you to North Dakota. If you didnt speak English, theyd give you a card round your neck asking people to help you find the right train,” explains Mr Rolfstad. Under the Homestead Act of 1862, if the immigrants staked out 160 acres and farmed it for five years, they owned itand their descendants own the mineral rights. In Europe, where such rights typically belong to the state, people resent the disruption fracking might cause. Americans, by contrast, tend to be delighted if a firm wants to frack under their land.很多北达科达人的祖先是19世纪抵达艾利斯岛的挪威人。汤姆罗尔夫斯塔特说道：“在当时，如果你是挪威人，他们会把你送到被达科达，要是你不会说英语，他们会在你的脖子上挂上一个卡片，有了这个卡片，你就能让人帮你找到去北达科达的火车。”按照美国在1862年颁布的宅地法，只要移民开拓了160英亩土地，并连续耕种五年，该移民将得到此土地的所有权。现在，这些移民的后代有了自己土地的采矿权。在欧洲国家，采矿权通常属于国家，人们十分痛恨石油公司在自己土地上进行的采油行为；而在美国，情况恰恰相反，农场主欢迎石油公司到自己的土地上开采石油。And for landowners, the fracking itself is not the only money-spinner. A farmer with land near Williston will have no trouble renting it out. The town is d