我最喜欢的一首歌曲为题 写一篇不少于300字的音乐小论文 要求1 用音乐要素分析和说明理由 2要自创= =_百度知道如图，∠1=∠2=55°，∠3=125°，找出图中的平行线，并说明理由，我也要解析哦！_百度知道&&下面的成语使用不正确的是那个？请知道的人回答一下我正确答案并 ...
下面的成语使用不正确的是那个？请知道的人回答一下我正确答案并说原因好吗？…希望我千万不要选错哟
A欲完成单人驾船环球航行的美国加利福尼亚16岁女孩在南印度洋海域与外界失去联系，处于（孤掌难鸣）的状态，亟待外界救援。 B.合肥市（未雨绸缪），已提前启动建设领域农民工维权维稳工作，多管齐下，采取严厉措施防止建筑业拖欠农民工工资现象发生。 C.专注于经营诗意文化空间的“渔歌晚唱”艺术沙龙，首度邀请著名国画家与古琴名家跨界合作，举办了一场(别开生面)的欣赏会。 D.跟痛症可以由跟骨骨刺、神经卡压等原因引起，有时几种诱因并存。所以首先应诊断明确，从而（有的放矢)地进行治疗。
A，孤掌难鸣是讲成一件事需多方配合，一人或单独势力做不到。用在这不对
提问者的感言：谢谢您的解答！
其他回答3条
选D。孤掌难鸣【解释】：一个巴掌拍不响。比喻力量孤单，难以成事。对。未雨绸缪【解释】：绸缪：紧密缠缚。天还没有下雨，先把门窗绑牢。比喻事先做好准备工作。对。别开生面【解释】：生面：新的面目。原意是凌烟阁里的功臣画像本已褪色，经曹将军重画之后才显得有生气。比喻另外创出一种新的形式或局面。对。有的放矢【解释】：的：箭靶子；矢：箭。放箭要对准靶子。比喻说话做事有针对性。错。原文不是指说话，而用在了诊断上。希望对你有帮助。
A 应该是孤立无援
A错，更正为：孤立无援。
bbooyyyyy的解释很好，但可惜答案错了。正如他所说的：“一个巴掌拍不响。比喻力量孤单，难以成事。”这个词一般用于强调“合作”话题。而孤立无援才是真正适合语境的成语。
D的意思是“比喻说话做事有针对性。”接近于“对症下药”。治疗骨刺自然是“做事”，所以放在这里讲得通。两者相较之下，应该是选A更为恰当。
我是蓝颜~O(∩_∩)O~~~~~~~~~~~~
问答为您推荐
市场价：暂无
网友正在问
||||||||||
Copyright (C) 1999-, All Rights Reserved 版权所有 天极网络这篇文章说的太好了！这才是我们社会需要的正气，分析的有理有据，每个人都要为自己的行为负责，突然变道不对，殴打他人违法。不要让打人者有了充分的理由，受害者变成了羞辱的对象。
楼主正文显示宽度
跟帖显示为
本帖只代表的个人观点，不代表人民网观点。 如将本文用于其他媒体出版, 请与联系。举报
微信扫一扫分享本帖到朋友圈
微信扫一扫分享本帖到朋友圈
图文编辑模式
19:05:51&)
( 16:48:19)
132字(17/0)
( 13:45:46)
( 17:56:47)
296字(8/0)
( 20:49:03)
104字(31/0)
( 07:50:41)
122字(7/0)
( 16:37:38)
33字(25/0)
( 14:25:44)
( 13:20:33)
76字(76/0)
( 10:05:06)
32字(17/0)
( 10:04:06)
105字(2/0)
( 21:17:11)
152字(30/1)
( 10:57:06)
111字(4/0)
( 12:40:17)
71字(10/0)
( 23:05:22)
301字(48/0)
( 20:57:12)
64字(31/0)
( 10:00:25)
36字(17/1)
( 10:05:46)
( 12:14:01)
363字(24/0)
( 04:23:03)
( 03:21:28)
30字(17/0)
( 03:16:38)
23字(18/0)
( 02:28:22)
( 02:23:33)
61字(204/0)
( 01:51:11)
( 01:51:03)
48字(44/0)
( 01:04:56)
67字(17/0)
( 01:04:15)
201字(10/0)
( 01:02:25)
138字(16/0)
( 01:01:17)
85字(259/0)
( 00:48:41)
37字(13/0)
( 00:47:34)
( 00:47:31)
( 00:46:58)
( 00:41:07)
( 00:26:08)
( 00:24:04)
138字(4/0)
( 00:23:10)
( 00:11:02)
23字(56/0)
( 00:08:43)
( 00:07:06)
16字(129/0)
( 00:05:31)
( 00:00:24)
( 00:00:14)
138字(24/0)
( 23:49:36)
( 23:49:11)
( 23:48:02)
( 23:45:05)
( 23:37:19)
120字(54/0)
( 23:37:00)
17字(35/0)
( 23:31:54)
222字(14/0)
( 23:31:41)
( 23:29:15)
17字(130/0)
( 23:25:04)
( 23:24:18)
( 23:22:41)
( 23:14:48)
( 23:13:51)
( 23:13:10)
49字(15/0)
( 23:13:01)
( 23:03:02)
( 22:57:01)
( 22:54:42)
387字(9/0)
( 22:52:10)
( 22:51:44)
( 22:50:33)
( 22:50:16)
( 22:50:04)
( 22:49:58)
( 22:49:01)
50字(19/0)
( 22:46:51)
171字(11/0)
( 22:44:02)
( 22:43:58)
( 22:43:30)
386字(7/0)
( 22:43:20)
216字(3/0)
( 22:40:34)
124字(40/0)
( 22:39:46)
110字(4/0)
( 22:37:38)
( 22:36:36)
33字(118/0)
( 22:36:23)
( 22:31:08)
28字(497/0)
( 22:26:27)
( 22:23:39)
68字(17/0)
( 22:21:35)
158字(26/0)
( 22:18:38)
38字(10/0)
( 22:14:17)
122字(16/0)
( 22:01:20)
130字(11/0)
( 21:59:44)
( 21:58:05)
44字(11/1)
( 22:01:42)
130字(6/0)
( 21:48:41)
( 21:48:26)
( 21:47:48)
( 21:43:45)
155字(89/0)
( 21:41:44)
15字(26/0)
( 21:41:43)
33字(22/0)
( 21:40:04)
( 21:38:06)
17字(15/0)
( 21:31:11)
100字(14/0)
( 21:29:19)
请登录后继续操作....
强国社区-人民网简要说明英国东印度公司创立、发展及最后覆灭的历史并初步分析及原因，引发人们对于各个国家不断涌现的现代大型国有企业的担忧
简要说明英国东印度公司创立、发展及最后覆灭的历史并初步分析及原因，引发人们对于各个国家不断涌现的现代大型国有企业的担忧
The East India Company
英国东印度公司
The Company that ruled the waves
称霸海洋的商业巨头
As state-backed firms once again become forces in global business, we ask what they can learn from the greatest of them all
获得国家支持的企业再次成为全球商业的中坚力量。我们不禁要问，他们能从此类企业中最具规模的英国东印度公司学到什么呢？
A POPULAR parlour game among historians is debating when the modern world began. Was it when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, in 1440? Or when Christopher Columbus discovered America, in 1492? Or when Martin Luther published his 95 theses, in 1517? All popular choices. But there is a strong case to be made for a less conventional answer: the modern world began on a freezing New Year’s Eve, in 1600, when Elizabeth I granted a company of 218 merchants a monopoly of trade to the east of the Cape of Good Hope.
讨论现代社会是从何时开始的是历史学家们最乐此不疲的市内游戏，是1440年约翰·古登堡发明印刷机？还是1492年克里斯托弗·哥伦布发现美洲？抑或是1517年马丁·路德发表他的95条论纲？这些都是最常见的回答。但我们有充分的理由认为还有一种不那么传统的答案：现代社会始于严寒的1600年新年前夜，伊丽萨白一世将好望角以东的贸易垄断权授予一家由218名商人组成的公司。
The East India Company foreshadowed the modern world in all sorts of striking ways. It was one of the first companies to offer limited liability to its shareholders. It laid the foundations of the British empire. It spawned Company Man. And—particularly relevant at the moment—it was the first state-backed company to make its mark on the world.
东印度公司以各种引人注目的方式预告了现代社会的到来。它是率先向股东提供有限责任的一家公司；它为大不列颠帝国打下了基础，也培育出对于公司绝对忠诚的员工。而且——尤其与当今时代密切相关的是——这是第一家世界获得国家支持而闻名于世的公司。
Twenty years ago, as the state abandoned the commanding heights of the economy in the name of privatisation and deregulation, it looked as if these public-private hybrids were doomed. Today they are flourishing in the emerging world’s dynamic economies and striding out onto the global stage.
20年前，当国家以私有化和取消管制的名义放弃经济制高点时，国有-私人混合型企业似乎在劫难逃。但今天，随着富有活力的经济体在世界各地不断涌现，这些企业欣欣向荣，更登上了全球舞台。
State-controlled companies account for 80% of the market capitalisation of the Chinese stockmarket, more than 60% of Russia’s, and 35% of Brazil’s. They make up 19 of the world’s 100 biggest multinational companies and 28 of the top 100 among emerging markets. World-class state companies can be found in almost every industry. China Mobile serves 600m customers. Saudi Arabia’s SABIC is one of the world’s most profitable chemical companies. Emirates airlines is growing at 20% a year. Thirteen of the world’s biggest oil companies are state-controlled. So is the world’s biggest natural-gas company, Gazprom.
国有控股企业占中国股市市场资本总值的80%，远高于俄罗斯的60%和巴西的35%。全球100强企业中有19家国有控股企业，新兴国家100强中，国有控股企业占了28席。几乎各个行业都有世界级国营公司的身影。中国移动为6亿用户提供服务；沙特阿拉伯的SABIC（沙特基础工业公司）是全球最能盈利的化学公司；阿联酋航空的年增长率高达20%。十三家世界最大石油公司中有四家由国家控股；全球最大的天然气公司俄罗斯天然气公司也是如此。1
State-owned companies will continue to thrive. The emerging markets that they prosper in are expected to grow at 5.5% a year compared with the rich world’s 1.6%, and the model is increasingly popular. The Chinese and Russian governments are leading a fashion for using the state’s power to produce national champions in a growing range of “strategic” industries.
国营公司的繁荣将不断持续。相比发达国家1.6%的增长率，这些企业所在的新兴市场的年增长率有望达到5.5%。而且这一模式也越来越普遍。中国和俄罗斯政府正领导这一潮流：他们倾全国之力，在范围不断扩大的“战略性”行业内打造国内龙头企业。
The parallels between the East India Company and today’s state-owned firms are not exact, to be sure. The East India Company controlled a standing army of some 200,000 men, more than most European states. None of today’s state-owned companies has yet gone this far, though the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has employed former People’s Liberation Army troops to protect oil wells in Sudan. The British government did not own shares in the Company (though prominent courtiers and politicians certainly did). Today’s state-capitalist governments hold huge blocks of shares in their favourite companies.
诚然，东印度公司与如今的这些国营企业并非完全相似。东印度公司控制着一支大约20万人的常备军，规模超出大部分欧洲国家，而如今没有一家国营公司能做到这一点，尽管中国海洋石油总公司(CNOOC)雇佣退役军人保护他们在苏丹的油田。英国政府并不拥有公司的股权（重要的朝臣与政治家则不然，这一点毫无疑问），而今天的国家资本主义政府则在他们最看好的公司内拥有数量惊人的股份。
Otherwise the similarities are striking. Both the Company and its modern descendants serve two masters, keeping one eye on their share price and the other on their political patrons. Many of today’s state-owned companies are monopolies or quasi-monopolies: Brazil’s Petrobras, China Mobile, China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission, to name but a few of the mongrel giants that bestride the business world these days. Many are enthusiastic globalisers, venturing abroad partly as moneymaking organisations and partly as quasi-official agents of their home governments. Many are keen not only on getting their government to provide them with soft loans and diplomatic muscle but also on building infrastructure—roads, hospitals and schools—in return for guaranteed access to raw materials. Although the East India Company flourished a very long time ago, in a very different world, its growth, longevity and demise have lessons for those who run today’s state companies and debate their future, lessons about the benefits of linking a company’s interests to a nation’s and the dangers of doing so.
在其它方面，两者之间的相似之处则颇为惊人。东印度公司和其现代翻版一样，一仆事二主：一面留心股票价格，一面关注他们的政治保护人。如今，许多国营企业均为垄断或准垄断企业：巴西石油公司、中国移动、中国建筑股份有限公司以及墨西哥的联邦电力委员会，这些混合型行业巨子高高凌驾于企业界之上。他们当中很多是狂热的全球化支持者，以半盈利机构半政府准代理人的身份在海外进行投资。很多企业不但热衷于获得政府的优惠贷款和外交支持，也精于建造基础设施——道路、医院和学校，以换得稳定可靠的原料来源。.尽管东印度公司的繁荣发生在很久之前一个截然不同的世界里，但它的发展、长期存在以及最终覆灭对于今天的国营企业运营者以及对此类企业的未来争论不休的人们、对于将公司利益与国家利益联系在一起究竟有哪些益处及其危险性都颇有借鉴意义。
The gifts of government
政府的礼物
One of the benefits the Company derived from its relations with the state was limited liability. Before the rise of state-backed companies, businesses had imposed unlimited liability on their investors. If things went wrong, creditors could come after them for everything they possessed, down to their cufflinks, and have them imprisoned if they failed to pay. Some firms had already been granted limited liability, and the Company’s officers persuaded Queen Elizabeth that it should be given this handy status too.
东印度公司与国家建立良好关系而获得的一大益处是有限责任。在国家支持的公司崛起之前，企业的投资人对于企业承担无限责任。如果经营不善，债权人可以拿走他们拥有的一切，连衬衫袖扣都不会放过。不偿清债务，还会被投入监狱。一些企业已经获得了有限责任而东印度公司的官员劝服伊丽莎白女王授予他们这一便利特权。
A second benefit of state backing was monopoly. In the 17th century, round-the-world voyages were rather like space missions today. They involved huge upfront costs and huge risks. Monopoly provided at least a modicum of security. The third benefit was military might. The Company’s Dutch and Portuguese competitors could all call on the power of their respective navies. The English needed to do likewise in order to unlock investors’ purses.
国家支持的第二大益处是垄断。17世纪的环球航行与今天的空间探险极其类似，需要高额的先期成本并伴以巨大风险。而垄断能提供最低限度的保障。第三大益处是军事力量。东印度公司的荷兰与葡萄牙竞争对手都可以随时召集各自的海军，英国人为了让投资者掏钱，也必须做到这一点。
Still, getting into bed with the government was risky for the Company. It meant getting close to courtiers who wanted to extract revenue from it and exposing itself to politicians who wanted to rewrite its charter. The Whig revolutionaries who deposed James II in 1688 briefly promoted a competing outfit that the Company first fought and eventually absorbed. Rival merchants lobbied courtiers to undermine its monopoly. But for the most part it dealt with these political problems brilliantly. Indeed its most valuable skill—its “core competence” in the phrase beloved of management theorists—was less its ability to arrange long-distance voyages to India and beyond than its ability to manage the politicians back home.
然而，与政府联姻对公司来说依然充满风险，因为这意味着公司必须与征收税款的朝臣攀交情，也不得不受到想要改写特许状的政治家的干涉。曾于1688年废黜了詹姆士二世的辉格革命党人直接推出了颇具针对性的全套特许状。东印度公司开始抗拒，最后不得不全盘接受。公司的竞争对手也不断向朝臣游说，企图破坏他们的垄断。但大部分情况下，公司能左右逢源地处理政治问题。事实上，公司最有价值的技能——用管理理论家最爱用的词表示即“核心竞争力”——虽不足与其安排印度远洋航行的能力媲美，面对国内的政治家们却颇有余力。
The Company created a powerful East India lobby in Parliament, a caucus of MPs who had either directly or indirectly profited from its business and who constituted, in Edmund Burke’s opinion, one of the most united and formidable forces in British politics. It also made regular gifts to the Court: “All who could help or hurt at Court,” wrote Lord Macaulay, “ministers, mistresses, priests, were kept in good humour by presents of shawls and silks, birds’ nests and attar of roses, bulses of diamonds and bags of guineas.” It also made timely gifts to the Treasury whenever the state faced bankruptcy. In short, it acted as what George Dempster, a stockholder, called a “great money engine of state”.
公司在议会设立了一个强有力的东印度公司游说团体——在埃德蒙·柏克看来，议会是由可从公司业务直接或间接获益的下院议员组成的核心决策小组，是英国政治活动中最团结、最难以对付的一股力量。公司还定期向宫廷赠送礼物。“任何能在宫廷内给予帮助或施加不利影响的人，”麦考利爵士写道：“内阁大臣、情妇、牧师，在看到披肩、丝绸、燕窝、玫瑰油、钻石和成袋的金币时都会有好心情。”无论何时，只要国家面临破产，公司总会适时地为财政部送上礼物。简而言之，公司——正如股东乔治登普斯特声称的——是“英国一架巨大的造币机”。
The Company was just as adept at playing politics abroad. It distributed bribes liberally: the merchants offered to provide an English virgin for the Sultan of Achin’s harem, for example, before James I intervened. And where it could not bribe it bullied, using soldiers paid for by Indian taxes to duff up recalcitrant rulers. Yet it recognised that its most powerful bargaining chip, both home and abroad, was its ability to provide temporarily embarrassed rulers with the money they needed to pay their bills. In an era when governments lacked the resources of the modern tax-and-spend state, the state-backed company was a backstop against bankruptcy.
公司在海外也同样精于权术。他们肆无忌惮地行贿，商人们甚至将一名英国姑娘送入亚齐(Achin)苏丹的后宫，直至詹姆士一世出面干预。如果行贿不起作用，公司就会采用威逼手段，动用由印度赋税养活的士兵打击不愿屈从的王公们。尽管如此，公司也认识到它在国内外最有效的讲价筹码是能为手头一时不便的王公们提供金钱以支付账单。当时的时代，政府缺乏现代征税以供开支的国家所拥有的资源，因此获得政府支持的公司是防止破产的有效工具。
State-backed monopolies are apt to run to fat and lose their animal spirits. The Company was a model of economy and austerity that modern managers would do well to emulate. For the first 20 years of its life it operated out of the home of its governor, Sir Thomas Smythe. Even when it had become the world’s greatest commercial operation it remained remarkably lean. It ruled millions of people from a tiny headquarters, staffed by 159 in 1785 and 241 in 1813. Its managers reiterated the importance of frugality, economy and simplicity with a metronomic frequency, and imposed periodic bouts of austerity: in 1816, for example, they turned Saturday from a half to a full working day and abolished the staff’s annual turtle feast.
政府支持的垄断公司往往容易发财，同时失去活力，而东印度公司的节约朴素之风正是现代经理人应当效仿的。最初的20年，公司一直由董事托马斯·斯迈思爵士在英国本土经营。即使在成为全世界最大的商业运营机构之后，公司依然保持着异常简朴的风格。统治数百万人的总部规模极小，1785年仅有159人，1813年仅有241人。经理们反复不停地重申节俭、经济和朴素的重要性，并定期开展精简开支活动。例如在1816年，他们将周六的半天工作日延长为一天，并取消了员工一年一度的庆功宴。
The Company’s success in preserving its animal spirits owed more to necessity than to cunning. In a world in which letters could take two years to travel to and fro and in which the minions knew infinitely more about what was going on than did their masters, efforts at micromanagement were largely futile.
公司能成功地保持活力更多是出于需要而非谋略。在一个信件往来耗时两年，对于所发生事件下人远比主人了解更多的时代，进行微观控制的努力在绝大多数情况下均归于徒劳。
The Company improvised a version of what Tom Peters, a management guru, has dubbed “tight-loose management”. It forced its employees to post a large bond in case they went off the rails, and bombarded them with detailed instructions about things like the precise stiffness of packaging. But it also leavened control with freedom. Employees were allowed not only to choose how to fulfil their orders, but also to trade on their own account. This ensured that the Company was not one but two organisations: a hierarchy with its centre of gravity in London and a franchise of independent entrepreneurs with innumerable centres of gravity scattered across the east. Many Company men did extremely well out of this “tight-loose” arrangement, turning themselves into nabobs, as the new rich of the era were called, and scattering McMansions across rural England.
公司随机应变，采用管理大师汤姆·彼得斯称之为“宽严相济”的管理方式。公司强迫员工缴纳巨额保证金以防止行为越轨，并不厌其烦地反复进行细节指导，诸如包装的周密严实。但是公司也在管理中加入比较自由的部分。员工可以选择如何完成订单，还能用自己的账户进行交易。这确保公司拥有两种而非一种组织结构：一种是等级制度，其重心位于伦敦；而另一种则授予独立企业家特权，其重心不可胜数，遍布东方。许多对公司忠心耿耿的员工在这样“宽严相济”的安排下取得了极其良好的业绩，也使自己成了nabob——这是当时对在印度发了大财的英国暴发户的称谓。他们豪华而俗气的宅第在英国乡间随处可见。
Money and meritocracy
金钱和精英统治
The Company repaid the state not just in taxes and tariffs, but also in ideas. It was one of the 18th and 19th centuries’ great innovators in the art of governing—more innovative by some way than the British government, not to mention its continental rivals, and outgunned only by the former colonies of America. The Company pioneered the art of government by writing and government by record, to paraphrase Burke. Its dispatches to and from India for the 15 years after 1814 fill 12,414 leather-bound volumes. It created Britain’s largest cadre of civil servants, a term it invented.
公司回报国家的，不仅是税收和关税，还有新的理念。在18和19世纪，东印度公司在统治艺术方面是最伟大的改革者——某些方面甚至比英国政府更为创新，更不用说欧洲大陆的竞争对手了。他们仅稍逊于前殖民地美国。我们可以这样理解柏克的话：在统治手段上，公司以正式文件见长，而公司记录则比政府更为详细。1814年之后的15年间，来往于印度的急件就用皮革封面装订了12414册。公司也建立了英国最大的公务员构架，而公务员这个术语本身，也是由公司发明的。
State-backed enterprises risk getting stuffed with powerful politicians’ half-witted nephews. The Company not only avoided this but also, in an age when power and money were both largely inherited, it pioneered appointment by merit. It offered positions to all-comers on the basis of exam performance. It recruited some of the country’s leading intellectuals, such as Edward Strachey, Thomas Love Peacock and both James and John Stuart Mill—the latter starting, at the age of 17, in the department that corresponded with the central administration in India, and rising, as his father had, to head it, on the eve of the Company’s extinction.
权高位重的政治家会将他们愚笨至极的子侄塞进政府支持的公司。而东印度公司不但避免了这一风险，而且在那个权力和金钱两者大都可以继承的年代，率先根据业绩安排职位。他们根据考试成绩为所有新员工安排职位。他们招募了英国重要的知识分子，如爱德华·斯特雷奇、托马斯·洛·皮科克、以及詹姆士和约翰·斯图亚特·密尔兄弟。后者17岁时即供职于位于印度的中央行政联络部门，并在公司结束的前夜，被提升为部门负责人（他父亲也曾担任这一职务）。
The Company also established a feeder college—Haileybury—so that it could recruit bright schoolboys and train them to flourish in, and run, India. These high-minded civil servants both prolonged the Company’s life when Victorian opinion was turning ever more strongly against it and also provided a model for the Indian and domestic civil service.
公司还创建了一所预备学院——黑利伯瑞，以便招募天资聪颖的学生并加以培训，让他们管理印度，也在印度发达。这些品格高尚的公务员在维多利亚时代舆论对公司极其不利的情况下延长了公司的生存时间，也为印度和本土公务员的服务树立了典范。
The Company liked to think of itself as having the best of both private and public worlds—the excitement and rewards of commercial life, on the one hand, and the dignity and security of an arm of the state on the other. But the best of both worlds can easily turn into the worst.
东印度公司自得地认为自己在私人及公共领域均取得了最佳成果——一方面是商业生涯的刺激和酬劳，另一方面则是作为国家左膀右臂的尊严和安全感。但是这种两全其美很容易就转化为最为不利的状态。
The perils of imperialisation
帝国化的危险
In the end, it was not rapacious politicians who killed the Company, but the greed and power of its managers and shareholders. In 1757 Sir Robert Clive won the battle of Plassey and delivered the government of Bengal to the Company. This produced a guaranteed income from Bengal’s taxpayers, but it also dragged the Company ever deeper into the business of government. The Company continued to flourish as a commercial enterprise in China and the Far East. But its overall character was increasingly determined by its administrative obligations in India. Revenue replaced commerce as the Company’s first concern. Tax rolls replaced business ledgers. Arsenals replaced warehouses. C.N. Parkinson summarised how far it had strayed, by 1800, from its commercial purpose: “How was the East India Company controlled? By the government. What was its object? To collect taxes. How was its object attained? By means of a standing army. What were its employees? Soldiers, the rest, Civil Servants.”
最终导致东印度公司走向毁灭的，不是贪婪的政治家，而是东印度公司经理及股东的贪婪和影响力。1757年，罗伯特·克莱武爵士赢得了普拉西战役，为公司赢得了孟加拉的统治权，从而确保了来自孟加拉纳税人的稳定收入，也使公司前所未有地深陷到政府事务中。作为一家商业企业，公司在中国和远东也获得了持续繁荣。但是，公司的整体形象却越来越多地取决于它在印度的行政职责。税收已替代贸易成为公司首要关心的问题。税单替代了业务分类帐；兵工厂替代了货栈。到1800年为止，公司偏离其商业目的到了何种严重的程度？C. N. 帕金森对此做了总结：“东印度公司由谁控制？政府。其目标是什么？收税。如何达到这一目标？常备军。公司雇佣哪些人员？大部分是军人，余者皆为公务员。”
The Company’s growing involvement in politics infuriated its mighty army of critics still further. How could it justify having a monopoly of trade as well as the right to tax the citizens of India? And how could a commercial organisation justify ruling 90m Indians, controlling 70m acres (243,000 square kilometres) of land, issuing its own coins, complete with the Company crest, and supporting an army of 200,000 men, all of which the East India Company did by 1800? Adam Smith denounced the Company as a bloodstained monopoly: “burdensome”, “useless” and responsible for grotesque massacres in Bengal. Anti-Company opinion hardened further in 1770 when a famine wiped out a third of the population of Bengal, reducing local productivity, depressing the Company’s business and eventually forcing it to go cap in hand to the British government to avoid bankruptcy.
公司日益卷入政治活动，进一步激怒了一批颇有权势的批评者。东印度公司凭什么能从事垄断贸易，同时又有权向印度人民征收税款？一家商业机构凭什么能统治9000万印度人，掌控7000千万英亩（24.3万平方公里）的土地，发行铸有公司饰章的钱币，并维持一支20万人的军队？这就是1800年时东印度公司做的一切！亚当·斯密公开谴责东印度公司是血迹斑斑的垄断企业：“累赘”、“无用”，并应对孟加拉令人作呕的大屠杀负责。1770年，反对公司的舆论更为强硬。当时一场饥荒导致孟加拉的人口减少三分之一，当地生产力下降导致业务萧条，最后迫使公司不得不低声下气求英国政府伸以援手，以免于破产。
The government subjected the Company to ever-tighter supervision, partly because it resented bailing it out, partly because it was troubled by the argument that a company had no business in running a continent. Supervision inexorably led to regulation and regulation to nationalisation (or imperialisation). In 1784 the government established a board to direct the Company’s directors. In 1813 it removed its monopoly of trade with India. In 1833 it removed its monopoly of trade with China and banned it from trading in India entirely. In 1858, the year after the Indian mutiny vindicated the Company’s critics, the government took over all administrative duties in India. The Company’s headquarters in London, East India House, was demolished in 1862. It paid its last dividend in 1873 and was finally put out of its misery in 1874. Thus an organisation that had been given life by the state was eventually extinguished by it.
政府对东印度公司施加前所未有的严格监管，部分是因为对这种援助表示不快，部分是因为关于东印度公司无权管理一个大陆的争论令政府非常焦虑。监管毫不留情地导致各类规章的出台，而各类规章则导致收归国有（或帝国化）。政府于1784年设立了委员会以领导公司董事，并于1813年撤销了印度贸易垄断权。1833年，公司被剥夺了中国贸易垄断权，并完全禁止其在印度从事贸易。1858年，即在印度的叛乱印证了反对者对东印度公司的抨击的第二年，政府接管了公司在印度的全部行政职责。东印度大厦，公司在伦敦的总部于1862年拆毁。公司于1873年最后一次支付股息，并于1874年最终结束了其悲惨命运。真是成也萧何败也萧何。
A dangerous connection
危险的联系
Ever since its ignominious collapse the Company has been treated as an historical curiosity—an “anomaly without a parallel in the history of the world”, as one commentator put it in 1858, a push-me pull-you the like of which the world would never see again. But these days similarly strange creatures are popping up everywhere. The East India Company is being transformed from an historical curiosity into a highly relevant case study.
东印度公司自从不光彩地崩溃之后，已成为历史遗迹。一位评论员在1858年称之为“世界历史中绝无仅有的畸形儿”，而这样类似两头蛇的公司将永远从世界上消失。但是如今，同样奇怪的生物却遍地开花。东印度公司正从历史遗迹转换成为切中时弊的个案研究。
The Company’s history shows that liberals may be far too pessimistic (if that is the right word) about the ability of state monopolies to remain healthy. The Company lasted for far longer than most private companies precisely because it had two patrons to choose from—prospering from trade in good times and turning to the government for help in bad ones. It also showed that it is quite possible to rely on the government for support while at the same time remaining relatively lean and inventive.
东印度公司的历史显示，自由主义者对于国家垄断维护经济健康的能力可能太过悲观（如果这是一个恰当的措辞）。公司延续时间远长于大多数私有公司的原因正是因为它有两个赞助人可以挑选——在繁荣时期因贸易而兴旺，萧条时期则转向政府寻求帮助。历史也显示，在依靠政府的支持的同时保持相对高效和创造力的可能性相当大。
But the Company’s history also shows that mercantilists may be far too optimistic about state companies’ ability to avoid being corrupted by politics. The merchants who ran the East India Company repeatedly emphasised that they had no intention of ruling India. They were men of business who only dabbled in politics out of necessity. Nevertheless, as rival state companies tried to muscle in on their business and local princelings turned out to be either incompetent or recalcitrant, they ended up taking huge swathes of the emerging world under their direct control, all in the name of commerce.
然而，公司的历史也显示，重商主义者对于国有企业避免被政治腐化的能力可能太过乐观。掌管东印度公司的商人们反复强调他们并无意统治印度，他们是商人，只在迫不得已时才会与政治沾边。但是，当竞争公司试图分一杯羹，或当地的傀儡君主无法胜任或拒不服从时，他们最终会将新世界的大片区域纳入自己的直接控制范围，而这一切，都是以贸易之名。
The Chinese state-owned companies that are causing such a stir everywhere from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (where they account for some of the biggest recent flotations) to the dodgiest parts of Sudan (where they are some of the few business organisations brave enough to tread) are no different from their East Indian forebears. They say that they are only in business for the sake of business. They dismiss their political connections as a mere bagatelle. The history of the East India Company suggests that it won’t work out that way.
中国的国营企业正四处引发争议，从香港证交所（最近最具规模的挂牌上市中就有他们的身影），到苏丹最危险地区（只有极少数商业机构敢于涉足其间）。这一点与他们东印度公司的先辈并没有什么不同。他们说他们只是在商言商。他们认为政治关系仅仅是微不足道的小事，无需多加考虑。而东印度公司的历史则告诉我们，其发展结果可能并非如此。
发表评论：
馆藏&43316
TA的推荐TA的最新馆藏}