CHAPTER 8 The Common People
第八章 平民百姓的生活面貌
YOU WILL LIKE the common people.
你一定会喜欢这些平民百姓。
They are dirty, smelly, and not attractive to look at because they are undernourished, worn down, and marked by disease, battered, and scarred by hard work in all weathers. Why would you like them? Because their fortunes are easy to follow; they go on doing the same thing century after century. Nearly all of them grow food.
他们很脏很臭，看来很不讨喜，因为他们一年到头无分寒暑地日夜操劳，形容憔悴、伤痕累累、营养不良、疾病缠身。那为什么你还会喜欢他们？因为他们的命运很容易追踪;百年复百年，他们做的都是同样的事，几乎所有的人都在耕种。
We don’t need a timeline to discuss them; we have a graph that shows very little variation. The graph shows the proportion of people who are growing food or who are very closely connected to it; that is, we include people living in rural villages or settlements and supporting farming, such as wheelwrights, blacksmiths, and laborers. The figures are very crude estimates. In the Roman Empire, roughly 90 percent of the people were in the countryside. There were great cities in the empire, preeminently Rome itself, but they constituted only 10 percent of the population.
要讨论平民百姓,我们不必列时代年表;这里有张图,显示他们极少出现变化。下页的图显示的是耕种食物或与食物关系密切的人口比例，换句话说，只要是住在乡村或聚落、对农作生产有辅助功能的人，例如车轮修造匠、铁匠或劳力工，全都包括在内。这些是非常概略的估计数
The big cities were supplied with grain from the country, but grain is a heavy product and could not be carted far by land before its whole value was consumed. The grain for Rome came from Egypt by sea, which was by far the cheapest mode of transport. In the later stages of the Roman Empire, the government subsidized the distribution of grain in Rome to keep the people content; Rome was like a third world city of today, a great magnet but unable to provide a living for all the people who flocked to it. Along with free bread, Rome provided regular spectacles in the Colosseum. The Roman satirist Juvenal described the government surviving by “bread and circuses.”
大城市的食物本要靠乡村的谷物供应，可是谷子很重,无法靠陆路用马车迢迢运来——因为它会腐烂朽坏,价值尽失。罗马的谷物是从埃及漂洋过海运来的,远比其他的运输方式便宜。罗马帝国后期，政府为了讨好人民,还会对罗马的谷物配销提供补贴;当年的罗马就像今天的第三世界城市，有如大磁铁般吸引人口蜂拥而至，却无法供应这些人的生活所需。当年的罗马不只提供免费面包,也会定期在圆形竞技场举办大场面的娱乐节目。罗马讽刺诗人尤维纳利斯(Juvenal)就形容，这个政府是靠着“面包和马戏表演”才得以苟延残喘。
This grain trade was exceptional. Most of the trade in the empire was in light, valuable luxury goods that could afford high delivery costs. In the Roman Empire, as in Europe until the nineteenth century, most people survived on what was grown or made nearby: Their food, drink, clothes, and shelter were all local products. Old cottages in Europe have thatched roofs not because it is more picturesque than slate but because it was the cheap material on hand. So in the economy, the Romans were not a transforming force; their innovation lay in binding an empire together by a single law and with a military organization that was outstandingly efficient. The straight Roman roads, parts of which survive, were designed by army engineers for the prime purpose of allowing soldiers to march quickly from place to place. That’s why they are straight; if they had been designed for horse and carts, the gradients would have been more gentle.
•九成五的人住在乡下
谷物贸易在当时可说是绝无仅有。帝国内大部分的商业买卖都是重量轻、价值高、禁得起长途跋涉的奢侈品。一如19世纪以前的欧洲，罗马帝国境内大部分的人都是就近取材，看附近种什么或制造什么，吃的、喝的、穿的、住的，一概是本地出产。欧洲村舍之所以拿茅草覆顶，不是因为它比石板屋顶更有诗画风情，而是因为茅草便宜，唾手可得，因此，经济发展并不是罗马人推动革新的重点，以一套法典及一种效率卓然的军事组织将整个帝国维系于不坠，才是他们的治国精神所在。直线相交的罗马道路，有一部分迄今犹存，即是出自当年军事工程师的设计，主要目的是让士兵从一处移动到另一处时行进迅速，因此是直线的；但如果是设计给一般马匹和马车使用，坡度会和缓得多。
In the last two centuries of the Roman Empire, the cities were losing population as the German invaders attacked them; trade contracted and local self-sufficiency became more imperative. In its great days, the empire’s cities did not have walls. The enemies of Rome were kept out at the frontiers. In the third century, walls around towns began to be built, and in places the evidence for the decline of towns is that later walls enclosed a smaller area. By the disappearance of the empire in AD 476, the proportion of people in the countryside had risen to 95 percent.
在罗马帝国的最后两百年间，随着日耳曼蛮族入侵, 城市人口流失，贸易严重萎缩,地区的自给自足更形必要。在帝国的极盛时期,城市是没有围墙的；罗马的敌人都被 挡驾在边境之外。直到3世纪，城镇开始沿着外围筑起城墙，后来城墙涵盖的区域越来越小，更证明了城镇的萎缩。公元476年，整个罗马帝国消失于无形，此时乡村的人口 比例已经升至了九成五。
It remained there for centuries. The German invasions were followed by others: Muslims in the seventh and eighth centuries, who raided into southern France and into Italy; Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries, who spread great mayhem. Peace came in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and trade and town life began to revive. Some towns had almost completely disappeared after the fifth century; others had been much reduced.
这些人口就此留在乡间，一留就是数百年。日耳曼蛮族入侵之后，其他外族也接踵而至：7到8世纪是穆斯林， 他们占领法国南部，攻进意大利；9到10世纪是维京人，到处烧杀掳掠，大肆破坏。11到12世纪，和平终于到来，贸易逐渐复苏，城市生活这才起死回生。5世纪之后，有些城镇几乎完全夷为平地，其他也大为缩小。
The graph begins a very slow fall. In the fifteenth century, Europe started to expand overseas, which led to a growth of commerce, banking, and shipping, and hence, the growth of towns. By 1800, the proportion of people in the countryside in Western Europe might have fallen to 85 percent, slightly lower than in the Roman Empire. There was very little movement over such a long time. The one exception is England, where by 1800 the rural proportion was falling rapidly as cities boomed; by 1850, half the population of England was in cities.
土地劳动人口开始出现下降趋势，但极其缓慢。15世纪，欧洲开始向海外扩张，商业、金融业、航运业因此水涨 船高，城市也欣欣向荣。1800年左右，西欧的乡间人口可能已降到八成五，稍低于罗马帝国当年。这么长的一段时间内，人口移动几乎无甚变化;唯一的例外是英国，1800年前后，它的乡间人口随着城市人口激增而开始锐减，到了1850年，英国人已有半数都居住在城市里。
The people growing food differed in status; at any one time and over time they might be small proprietors, slaves, ex-slaves, serfs, ex-serfs, tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers. We will call them all peasants. But the work was the same whoever you were and whatever the era. In Italy, southern France, and Spain, plowing in the nineteenth century was the same as in Roman times. The plow was primitive; think of the plow as a forked stick with a cutting blade at its base. An oxen or horse pulls the plow; the plowman holds and directs it, and the blade penetrates not very far below the surface. It was not much more than scratching the surface. You plowed in checkerboard fashion, along the field and then across it.
■谈天气,忧心命运
耕种食物的人也有等级之分。长久以来，无论什么时 代,小地主、奴隶（或当过奴隶的自由民）、农奴（或当过农 奴的自由民）、佃农（或收益分成的佃农）和劳力工都可能包括于耕种者之列。我们通称他们为农民。不过,无论身 在何处、处于什么年代,这些人的工作方式都一模一样；在 意大利、法国南部和西班牙,19世纪的犁田方法和罗马时代殊无不同。他们用很原始的犁，你只要想象一根叉状的长木棍，底部有个切割用的刀片就是了。一头牛或马在前拉着犁，一人在后抓着犁头控制方向，而刀片很难深入士壤内层，只能浅浅刮过表面°犁田是以棋盘式进行，先沿 着田地直行，再横着犁下去。
One of the great inventions of the early Middle Ages was the wheeled plow. The inventor is unknown. This was more effective for the heavier soils of northern France, Germany, and England. In principle, it was the same as modern plows except that it was pulled by animals and held to the job by humans. There was a sharp blade that cut the soil and a moldboard that lifted and turned the soil that had been cut. This produced furrows, not just scratches, and the furrows all ran the same way, parallel to each other—not the crosshatching of the old plow. In the heavy soil, water could run off down the furrows. Plowing was hard work; you were not just steering the plow. If you didn’t hold it firm with your shoulders and your arms, it would fall over rather than cut the soil. After you plowed the land, you broadcast the seed, which was easier work. You walked over the fields casting the seed in swaths to fall onto the ground. Then the seed was covered with a harrow, a sort of rake.
有轮的犁具是中世纪早期的伟大发明之一，发明者是何人已不可考。它对法国北部、德意志和英国的厚重土壤 尤具效果。基本上，这种犁具颇类似于现代的耕土机，只 是还是得由动物拉车并且由人控制。这种犁除了有个挖 得进土壤的锐利刀片，还有一个模板可将挖松的土壤抬起 翻转。这就产生了垄沟，不止是挖挖表面而已，而且垄沟 都是同个方向、互相平行，不再是旧式犁法的平行相交。 在重土壤上，灌溉的水可以沿着垄沟流下去。犁田是辛苦 的工作，你不只是操控犁具的方向而已，如果你的肩膀和 手臂不用力抓紧，不但挖不到土还会翻覆。犁完田后就是 播种，这个差事比较轻松，你在田地一条条的刈沟里撒下 种子，然后拿一根耙子（harrow）——耙具的一种——把种子盖起来。
pics. The early forked plow was relatively light, scratching the surface of the soil in small square plots. The heavier wheeled plow was able to turn the deeper soils of Northern Europe, creating ridges and furrows in long strips called “furlongs.”
早期的叉状犁具,重量相对为轻，只能在小块田地间浅掘土壤的表 面（左）0有轮的犁具（右）则可深入北欧的深层土壤，犁出一条条 长形的垄沟，称为“弗隆”（furlongs）（译注:furlongs,亦称浪，长度 单位,相当于0.2公里）。
Men plowed. Men, women, and children harvested, and since the time for a safe harvest was short, people would be recruited from the towns and the local soldiers might be turned out of the barracks to help. Harvesting was done with the sickle, a curved blade with a handle. Archaeologists find them in the most ancient human settlements. They were still the standard harvesting mechanism in Europe up until the early twentieth century. The communist revolution in Russia in 1917 wanted its new flag to honor the workers; it carried the hammer and sickle, the hammer for urban workers and the sickle for country workers.
犁田是男人的事。收割则是男女老幼都要参与，而且因为安全收割期很短，农民得从城镇招募临时工，就连本地的士兵都可能走出军营前来帮忙。收割的工具是镰刀, 一种有柄的弯刀。考古学家曾在最古老的人类聚落里找到镰刀，而直到20世纪初叶,镰刀在欧洲依然是标准的收割工具。1917年，俄罗斯爆发社会主义革命，制作了新国旗向劳动阶级致敬，新旗上有榔头和镰刀的标志,榔头意指城市里的劳工，镰刀则代表乡村劳工。
You must not think of cultivation and harvest as you see it now with farmers sitting in air-conditioned tractors driving over the land. Peasants were plodding, bending, and straining over every inch of ground year after year.
想到耕种和收割，千万不要以为那是你今天看到的景 象:农夫坐在装有冷气的曳引机里，一路开过田地。年复 一年，一英寸一英寸的田地都是农民埋头苦干、弯腰驼背、拖着脚步辛苦耕耘出来的。
pics. Harvesting scenes from a German manuscript, Speculum Virginum, around 1200.
After the stalks of wheat or barley had been gathered, the grain had to be beaten out of the ears. The tool to do this was a flail, which had a long wooden handle to which a flat board was attached with a leather thong. You swung the handle and brought the board down flat on the ears lying on the floor of the barn. The doors of the barn were open and the breeze would carry away the chaff and leave only the good grain on the barn floor.
把收割完的大麦或小麦茎秆集中在一起，接着还得将麦粒从麦穗上打下来。打谷用的工具叫做连枷，它有长长的柄和一个连着一根皮带的平板。在谷仓地上铺满麦穗， 然后摇晃连枷的柄，木板就会往下移动，平平压在麦穗上。让谷仓的门保持开敞，如此，微风可把糠皮吹走，地上只留下完好的谷粒。
The grain was made into flour and then into bread. Bread was the staff of life. You eat hunks of it and not much else; you do not eat meat regularly. You might have some butter or cheese to go with your bread. Bread is the meal; it is not on a side plate or a couple of slices in a nice basket. It’s three or four hunks. You eat about two pounds of it a day if you are well-off. That’s a large loaf per day. Grain was grown everywhere, even in places where it was not well suited and where today grain would not be grown. Because transport was very difficult, the grain had to be grown close to where it was consumed. Grain that came from elsewhere was very expensive. Grain could be moved by sea, but inland for any distance only became possible in the eighteenth century with the building of canals.
这些谷粒可以制成面粉，然后做成面包。面包是生命的支柱，你就这么大块大块地吃它，没什么别的可选;肉不是平常就可以吃到，或许有点牛油或乳酪可以配着面包吃。面包就是主食，不是放在旁边小碟中的配角，也不是漂亮篮子里放个寥寥几片，而是三或四大块那么多。如果你是有钱人，一天可以吃个一公斤，也就是每天一大条。到处都在种麦子，即使是不适合种麦的地区。由于运输极其困难，谷物必须生长在接近消费的地方，从别处运来的谷物是很贵的。谷物虽然可以靠海路运来，可是在内陆地区，不管距离远近，直到18世纪运河开凿之后，谷物的运输才成为可能。
Everyone was always anxious about the harvest. The talk about the weather was not making conversation; it was a people pondering their fate. If the grain did not ripen or bad weather spoiled the grain before it could be harvested, then the whole community would suffer. Grain would have to come from elsewhere and it would be very expensive. In times of shortage of grain, the price of bread doubled or tripled. This is not like one item in the supermarket that costs a lot more and you have to eat something else for a time. This is the cost of your whole food intake that is doubling or tripling. Once it does that, you are hungry or maybe you are starving.
所有的人都老是为收成担心害怕。谈天气不是为了没话找话说，而是一群人在忧心自己的命运。如果谷子不成熟或是在收割季节前被恶劣天候给毁了，整个社群都会遭殃；他们得从别处运来谷物，而这样做的成本非常之高。谷物歉收时期，面包价格会飙涨个两倍或三倍。这可不像现在超级市场里哪个东西贵了许多，你这段时间就暂且改吃其他东西这么简单；这意味着你的食物成本会增加两到207208三倍之多，果真如此，你就只好挨饿，说不定还会饿死。
But peasants were growing the food, so wouldn’t high prices benefit them? Only for those with large holdings. If you grew only enough to feed your family with little to sell, a failure in the harvest would mean you didn’t have enough to feed yourselves and you would have to buy extra. Some had small plots that, even in good times, were not enough to supply their family; they relied on getting extra work on larger properties and buying extra food. Many were laborers with no land of their own; if they lived with their employer and got fed, they would not be so badly off; if they lived in their own cottage, they would be regular buyers of bread. People in the towns, of course, were always buyers. There were lots of people in deep trouble when the price of grain went up.
可是，食物是农民种出来的，价格上扬不是对他们有利吗？这只有对拥有大批食粮的人才是。如果你种的东西只够养家糊口，全没余粮可卖，歉收就表示你连自己肚子都填不饱，还得到外头去买。有些人的田地小，就算丰收也不够一家人吃，这些人就得帮大地主打零工，才能多买点食物。很多劳力工根本没有自己的田，他们如果跟着雇主一起住，雇主管吃管住，那还不坏，但要是住在自己的茅草陋屋里，就得常常去买面包。当然，住在城里的人，面包永远都靠买的，因此，只要谷价上扬，许多人都将面临水深火热。
As soon as there was a grain shortage, owners of grain— those who grew it in a big way and dealt in it—were tempted to hold it back so that the price would go even higher, or to send it off somewhere else if the price there had risen further and leave the locals without any grain. As soon as governments were halfway competent, roughly from 1400 onward, they attempted to control this business. They passed laws to prohibit hoarding and the transporting of grain out of localities where there was scarcity. If the magistrates did not enforce these laws, the people could enforce the laws themselves. They went searching for hoards of grain and forced large farmers to sell. They attacked wagons or boats that were carrying grain elsewhere. It was partly because of the potential for riot and disorder that governments were forced to become involved.
•抢粮、抢食、抢囤积
一旦谷物短缺，谷粮的拥有者——大批栽种并且拿来交易的人——很可能会囤积起来等着价格继续高涨，要不就运到其他价格涨得更凶的地方去卖，如此一来，本地人就无粮可吃了。约莫1400年之后，欧洲各国政府逐渐迈向强盛，曾经试图控制谷物交易。它们明订法令禁止囤积，也不准商家将本地已短缺的粮食运到外地，要是地方官不执行这些法令，人民很可能就会自己来实行。他们四处搜寻囤粮，逼迫大农拿出谷粮来卖，甚至袭击运送谷物到别处去的马车或船只。因为有引发暴动、社会失序之虞，政府插手介入也是不得已。
Most people most of the time were living with uncertainty over food. Luxury is to eat well regularly; fat is beautiful; holidays are feast days. We still have a pathetic remnant of this in our society in the celebration of Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, that is, when we are expected to mark the day by eating a lot—even though we eat well all the time. I try to preserve something of the proper ethos of a feast day by never eating turkey on any other day.
大部分的人大部分时间都活在对食物的不确定感之中。能好好吃顿饭是一种奢侈；肥胖代表美；节庆假日是大快朵颐的日子。在现代社会，庆祝圣诞节的方式依旧是这种现象的可悲遗绪，换句话说，我们会期待用大吃大喝来纪念这一天，虽然我们平日已经吃得够好。我现在还试着保存一点这个节日的原味精神——其他日子绝不吃火鸡。
The 85–95 percent of the people who worked the land made civilization possible. If peasants had grown only enough food for themselves, there could not have been any cities or lords, priests or kings, or armies—who all depended on others growing their food. Whether they wanted to or not, the peasants had to supply food to other people. This process can be seen most clearly in the serfs of the early Middle Ages passing a portion of their crop over to their lord as rent, some to the church as a tithe, as well as working on the lord’s land without pay so that he would have his own crop. Later, the obligation to work ceased and payment to the lord and priest was in money.
是这些占了总人口百分之八十五到九十五的土地劳动者造就了文明。要是农民种植的食物只够喂饱自己，任何城市或领主、教士或国王甚或军队都不可能存在——这些人全得靠别人种东西给他们吃。不管农民愿不愿意，他们都必须供应他人粮食。这个现象在中世纪早期的农奴身上最为突显，他们必须把一部分的作物当做租金呈缴给领主，一些捐给教堂当做捐献，还得在领主的田地里无酬工作，好让领主自己也有收成。到后来，替领主工作的义务停止了，只要付钱给领主和神父就好。
Peasants paying tax to collectors during the Roman Empire (note the record book on the left). This relief, found on the Rhine frontier, is from about AD 200.
In the early Middle Ages, there was no taxation by the state; before, in the Roman Empire, and afterward in the emerging states of Europe, peasants were taxpayers. We have a depiction of tax-collecting in the Roman Empire showing the tax collectors and the peasants coming to pay. The transaction is recorded not on paper but on waxed boards. This is the key transaction for the running of the empire: You take money from peasants and you use it to pay your soldiers. Screwing money out of peasants is the foundation of civilization. You see how direct this taxgathering is. You do not write to this taxman or send him a check; he doesn’t deduct a portion of your pay as you earn it. The taxman is a live person who seeks you out; if you refuse to pay, he will return with the force to make you. Tax- paying was not bureaucratically controlled; it was a face-toface encounter. In the Roman Empire, the tax-gatherers were called publicani, that is, those who are collecting for the public. They were hated. Even Jesus assisted in stereotyping them as the worst people when he said there is no particular virtue in loving those who love you—even the tax-gatherers will do that. In the King James version of the Bible, publicani is translated as publicans. Jesus is criticized for mixing with “publicans and sinners.” This was very unfair to those who held licenses for public houses.
•税吏成了罪人的代名词
在中世纪早期，国家是不征税的;之前的罗马帝国以 及之后的欧洲新兴国家,农民都得纳税o这里有个显示罗 马帝国如何收税的浮雕作品，对于税吏和前来缴税的农民 有所描绘。这些交易不是登录在纸上，而是记在上蜡的木 板上，这是维系帝国运作最关键的交易：国王从农民那里 拿钱，然后用这笔钱付薪水给军人。 从农民身上压榨金钱，是文明的基石。你可以看到, 收税过程多么干净利落。你不必开支票或寄支票给税吏, 他不会把你赚的钱减去一部分当做扣抵额,税吏是个活生 生的人，到天涯海角也能把你找到;如果你拒绝缴税，他会 带着武器回来逼你掏钱。缴税一事不是由官僚体系掌控, 而是面对面的交锋。在罗马帝国，这些收税人叫做“ publicani”,也就是从民众身上收取税金的人。大家对他们深恶 痛绝，是世上至恶之人，就连耶稣对这个刻板印象的塑造 也有推助之功;他说,去爱那些爱你的人不是什么了不起 的美德——即使税吏也会这样做。在钦定的《圣经》版本 里“publicani”被译为英文的“publicans”。有人批评耶稣, 说他把“税吏和罪人”混为一谈，这对那些拥有证照的公职 官吏很不公平。
To speak of peasants being screwed is, of course, very loaded language. Perhaps they should have enjoyed paying their taxes, or at least only grumbled about it; no one likes paying taxes, but we get the benefit of the services that government provides. Except the peasants got no services. Governments did not run schools or health systems. Mostly they didn’t look after the roads; roads were matters for local concern, except where they had a military importance. The Romans looked after the public health of their cities by providing water and sewerage systems, but they did not do anything for the countryside. Until very recent times, most tax collected, 80 or 90 percent of it, was spent on the armed forces. So did the peasant benefit from the foreign foe being kept at bay? Not really, because war to the peasant meant battles fought over his land, and his food and animals being taken to feed both armies.
当然，说农民受到压榨，这是非常情绪化的用语。说 不定他们应该乐于缴税才对，或至少只是嘴上抱怨几句罢 了 ；虽然没有人喜欢缴税，可是这对大家有好处，可以得到 政府提供的服务。问题是，当年的农民并没有得到任何服 务。政府既不兴办学校，也没保健制度;大部分的政府连 马路都不管——因为马路属于地方事务，除非具有军事重 要性。罗马政府会照顾城市的公共卫生，提供用水和排水 系统，对乡村却是不闻不问。政府的税收约莫有八到九成 都是用在军武上。那么.将外侮阻挡在外,对农民总该有 好处了吧？不见得。对农民来说，战争表示他的土地会烽 火不断,而他的食物和动物都被拿去喂养两方的军队了。
The threat of force and the insistence by their betters that they were inferior people who were bound to obey and comply kept peasants paying their taxes, but still there were regular protests, riots, and rebellions. Peasants were inspired to act by their own view of the world, which was that if kings, bishops, and landlords left us alone we would be perfectly all right. It was easy to think this because peasants did grow all their own food, build their own housing, brew their own beer, and weave their own clothes. A lot of modern people choose to drop out of the rat race; they think all you need to live is a plot of land on which to grow your own food. You do not have to be on the land for long to realize that you actually need money to buy jeans, drugs, liquor, DVDs, and gas, and phone bills have to be paid. Soon the dropouts are taking part-time work and neglecting their farming; soon after that, they are back in full-time work. But for the peasants, self-sufficiency was real; to them, the government and the church were mere burdens and the money taken from them was robbery.
除了受武力威胁,地位高于农民的人也硬说农民低人 一等,只有服从听话的份，农民只好继续缴税，但时不时还 是有抗议、暴动和反叛等情事发生。农民认为，如果国王、 主教和地主全都抛下我们不管,我们也能活得很好。他们 很容易有这样的想法，因为农民都是自己种作物、自己盖 房子、自己酿酒、自己织布做衣服。 不少现代人也选择从汲汲营营的生活里退出。他们 以为自己只需要一块土地，自己种东西吃就可以活下去。 他们不用多久就会发现，买牛仔裤、买药、买酒和录影带样 样都需要钱，油钱和电话账单也不能不付。不出多久，这 些返璞归真的人开始兼差，慢慢荒废了自己的农作;再过 不久，他们又回到职场朝九晚五去了。不过，对当时的农 民来说，他们是真的自给自足。在他们看来，政府和教会 纯然只是负担，伸手要钱就跟抢劫没有两样。
THE PEASANT REVOLTS were always suppressed—until the first year of the French Revolution. The French peasants, like all the others, had been serfs in the Middle Ages. When serfdom came to an end in Western Europe in the late Middle Ages, a variety of situations were available for the ex-serfs. In France, the law said the peasants were the owners of their lands, which they could sell and leave. However, they and whoever bought the land still had to pay the old feudal dues and obligations to the lord, such as giving something when the lord’s daughter got married or being obliged to work on the lord’s land so many days a week. These had been turned from gifts and service into money payments. So these peasant owners of land still had to pay an assortment of rents. Owner and tenant: It was a most unusual situation.
农民多次起义总是被镇压下来——直到法国大革命 的初年，法国农民和别处的农民并无不同，都是中世纪的 农奴出身。中世纪末期，西欧的农奴制度画下了休止符, 各国对这些恢复自由身的农奴各有不同的处理方式。在 法国，法律明定农民是田地的拥有者，可以卖掉土地迁移 他处。然而，不管是这些人或是买下他们土地的人，依旧 得对旧日的封建领主缴交规费，对领主也依然负有义务, 例如，领主的女儿婚嫁，他们就得送礼，或是每星期必须在 领主的田地里义务做上几天的活。后来这些赠礼和服务 转变成以金钱打发即可，因此，这些拥有土地的农民依然 必须缴纳一堆杂七杂八的租金，他们既是地主又是佃农, 这是极其罕异的处境。
The owners of the large estates—it could be a lord but now also a rich, middle-class person—employed smart lawyers to check back through the records to see that all dues and obligations were being met by some money payment. When the dues and obligations were changed into money, no account had been taken of inflation; the money payments were not, to use our term, indexed for inflation. So the lord had every incentive to find obligations that had been overlooked or wrongly calculated. There could scarcely be a more annoying and aggravating relationship; the lord had seen the ownership of the land pass to the peasant and he compensated for that loss by ratcheting up the money payments for the old dues and obligations. The peasants fought back; they banded together to hire their own lawyers to do battle with their lord’s.
而拥有广大田地的人，可能是个领主,现在也是个有 钱的中产阶级，他们会雇用一些聪明的律师去调查，看那 些农民有没有拿钱来缴清所有的应付规费和义务。当初 这些规费和义务被转换成金钱时，并没有将通货膨胀考虑 进去，以现代词汇来说，这些缴纳的钱并没有反映出通货 膨胀指数，因此，领主有莫大的诱因去找出先前被遗漏或 计算错误的地方。再也没有比这样的关系更令人火大的 了，领主眼看着田地被移转到农民名下，为了弥补损失,于 是拿旧日的规费当借口索取更多金钱。农民决定开始反击,他们集结起来，自己也雇用律师，向他们的领主宣战。
When the king called the Estates General in 1788, the peasants assumed that a new day was going to dawn; all these hated impositions would be lifted from them. But there was a troubling delay; they heard about the fall of the Bastille and the king’s acceptance of the National Assembly, but their payments to the lord survived. Some foul conspiracy must be afoot. The price of bread was high and rising because the last harvest had been poor and the new harvest was not yet in. Rumors swept the countryside that aristocrats and bandits were trying to stop the reform from reaching the country. Peasants actually marched out to meet and defeat the bandits. They also marched on the lords’ châteaus and demanded that the lord or his agent destroy the great registers in which their payments were recorded. If the lord agreed they went away satisfied; if he did not they set the château on fire.
1788年，法王召开三级会议，农民以为变天的曙光出 现，所有他们痛恨的巧取豪夺终于可以解除，可是，事情迟 迟没有进展，令人生疑;先前他们就听说巴士底狱被攻陷、 国王承认了国民议会，可他们照样得缴钱给领主,其中定 有阴谋湎包价格一天比一天贵,因为前一回的收成极差, 而新的收成尚未到季。乡间传言四起，说那些贵族和恶霸 正千方百计阻挠乡村的改革措施。农民果真起而行动，浩 浩荡荡跑去找那些恶霸算账，把他们打得落花流水。他们也向领主的城堡前进，要求领主或他的代理人毁掉登记付 款的大账册,如果领主点头，他们就心满意足地散去，若领主不肯点头,就一把火烧了城堡。
The revolutionaries in Paris did not know what to do about this peasant rebellion sweeping the countryside. This is not what they expected at all. In due time, once they had formulated the Rights of Man and a new constitution, they would address the peasant grievances. The difficulty was that among the revolutionaries themselves were people who received payments from peasants on lands they had bought.
农民之乱在整个乡间燎原延烧,巴黎的革命党不知如 何是好，这完全出乎他们意料之外。如果时机恰当，一待 他们制定了《人权法案》和新宪法，当会针对农民之怨谋求 解决。问题是，借此向农民收钱之辈，在这些革命党之中 也不乏其人。
The revolutionaries did not want the king to send out his army to control the peasants, which was the normal response to peasant rebellion. If the king ordered the army out he might, after dealing with the peasants, turn it on the revolutionaries. So the leaders of the assembly decided that they must do what the peasants wanted. On the evening of August 4, 1789, in an all-night session, speakers denounced the dues and obligations. Men who had benefited from them outdid each other in condemnation and promise of reform. It was half stage-managed and half hysteria. But they did not lose their heads completely: A distinction was to be drawn between payments that related to personal service, which would be swept away immediately, and those that related to property, which would be removed later and with compensation to owners. It was very hard to make this distinction; the peasants refused to draw it and from that moment never again made payments of any sort. In 1793, when the revolution became more radical and a new constitution was created, all dues and obligations were canceled.
•法国农民为何这么跩?
每当农民作乱，国王的反应通常是派遣军队镇压，但 革命党并不希望这样;如果国王下令派出军队，很可能在 解决农民之乱后转而要军队去对付革命党。议会领袖决 定顺应民意，农民要什么就给什么。1789年8月4日，议 会彻夜开会，宣布取消所有田地规费和义务。过去借此牟 利的人彼此互相怪罪，并承诺改革，但这一半是精心安排 的表演，一半是歇斯底里的情绪。不过，政府并没有完全 被冲昏头，他们希望划定一条分际,关于私人服务的款项 立即废除，但与地产相关的规费则是稍后再解除,并且让 地主得到若干赔偿。但这条分际甚难拿捏，农民拒绝划 界,坚持从今而后任何款项都不必付。1793年，随着革命 手段越来越激烈、新宪法也已出炉,所有的规费和义务一概取消。
The peasants became full owners of their land, entirely free of their landlords. They then became a conservative force in French politics throughout the nineteenth century, compared to radical working-class people in the cities, who attacked private property and wanted to create a socialist society. The big men in France could always rely on the peasants to vote that down. They held on to their small plots, which meant that agriculture in France would remain small-scale and inefficient. Today, the peasants benefit from European subsidies, which means they can market their produce at lower prices and compete against larger and more efficient farmers. The French peasants are now screwing us!
如今，法国农民变成如假包换的土地拥有者,再也不 受任何地主的牵制,他们后来变成19世纪法国政坛的一 股保守势力，与城市里攻击私有财产、亟于创造共产主义 社会的激进劳工阶级分庭抗礼°在法国，那些大头们总是 能靠这些农民投票将这类共产主义提案否决掉。农民紧 握着小小田地不放,也让法国农业永远是无效率可言的小 规模经营。而今天，这些农民受惠于欧洲的各项补助，这 表示他们可以用较低的成本销售农作物，以对抗澳大利亚 效率较高、规模较大的农民。现在可是法国农民在压榨 我们！
In England, a totally different arrangement of the land followed the end of serfdom. Feudal dues and obligations in any form disappeared. The serf became a tenant farmer in the modern way, simply paying rent to the landlord. The tenant held a lease, sometimes for long time, perhaps even for life, but when the lease expired the landlord could remove the tenant and rent the land to someone else. In France, the peasant had greater security; he could not be removed but he had to pay the feudal dues and obligations. The existence of a modern, commercial relationship between landlord and tenant in England allowed for the huge jump in agricultural productivity that is called the Agricultural Revolution.
至于英国,在农奴制度告终之后，对土地的安排截然 不同。任何形式的封建规费和义务全都销声匿迹。农奴 按照现代的方法变成了佃农，也就是单纯付租金给地主 215 216 就好。佃农签有租约，有时期限极长，甚或可租用终身,不过 一旦租约到期，地主可以更换佃农，把土地租给别人。在 法国,农民保障较大，地主不能更换农民，但农民必须缴纳 封建规费和义务;在英国，地主和佃农之间是现代的商业 关系，这促成了它的农业生产力大跃进，称为农业革命。
The revolution had two elements: an improvement in agricultural practice and a rearrangement of land holdings. It had nothing to do with the improvement of agricultural machinery; tractors and harvesting equipment came much later.
•英国农民为何这么富?
这场革命包含两大元素:农作方法的进步和土地所有权的重新规划Q它与农业机械的改善毫无关联;曳引机和收割机都是许久之后才告问世。
First, as to agricultural practice. The basic problem faced by all cultivators is that regular cultivation exhausts the soil. How do you solve it? The German farmers outside the Roman Empire simply moved to new land when the old land was exhausted. This is only semipermanent agriculture. Within the Roman Empire, the land on a farm was divided into two. One part was cropped; the other lay fallow, which means the land was rested; horses, oxen, sheep, and cattle grazed on it, eating the stubble of last year’s crop and dropping their manure. At the end of the year, the fallow was plowed up and a new crop sown, and the other part of the farm reverted to fallow. This remained the system in Southern Europe until the nineteenth century. In Northern Europe in the Middle Ages, a three-field system developed, two carrying crops and the third lying fallow. One grain crop was planted in autumn, the other in spring. You see what an increase in efficiency this is: Two-thirds of the land is producing grain instead of one half.
先说农作方法。频繁的耕种会让土壤养分枯竭，这是所有耕种者面对的基本难题。如何解决呢？如果是罗马帝国境外的日耳曼民族，农夫会在旧地枯竭后直接搬迁到一块新土地上去耕种，这只能算是半永久性的农业。至于罗马帝国境内，会将农场土地分成两半，一半种植作物，一半休耕，意思是不种东西让田地休息，牛羊马匹在这块地上吃草，不但将去年收成的余梗吃掉，下的粪便还可充当肥料。一年终了，农夫在这块休耕地上翻土插秧、种新作物，轮到另一半开始休耕。19世纪之前，南欧一直是这样的做法。中世纪的北欧则是发展出三田轮耕制，其中两块种作物，一块于秋天，另一块于春天翻土播种，第三块休耕。明显可见，这个做法提高了不少效率:时时都有三分之二的田地在生产谷物，而非二分之一。
In England in the eighteenth century, farms were divided into four and crops planted in each of them. This was the Agricultural Revolution. How might this work? If the land is always cropped it will become exhausted. The clever lateral thinking behind this technique was that two of the crops were grain, as before, and two were fodder for animals, such as turnips or clover. They take different elements out of the soil and so the soil was not exhausted by continuous grain cropping. Clover actually regenerates the land by fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil. Since crops were being grown for animals, who were previously left to survive in the fallow, more cattle and sheep could be run; they ate better, became larger, dropped more manure. At the end of the year, a cattle or sheep field became a grain field and yielded a better crop. More and better animals and better crops: This was the outcome of the new four-field practice.
18世纪的英国，则是将农地分成四份,每一块都种植作物，这就是农业革命。它为什么效果卓然呢？一块地如果一直种植谷物，养分会耗损殆尽。这种方法的聪明之处在于:其中两块田地一如往昔种植谷物,另外两块则用来种植牲畜饲料，例如芜菁或苜蓿。这些作物从土壤里汲取的养分不同，因此土壤不会因为不断种植谷类而告枯竭。事实上，苜蓿还可将大气层里的氮气固定于土壤而增益其养分。由于农夫也开始种植动物的饲料作物，足以养活更多的牛羊，不像过去那般让牲畜在休耕地上自生自灭;牲畜因为吃得好，不但更肥壮，下的粪肥也更多。一年将尽,当这块养牛养羊的田地转而种植谷物，生长的作物也就得到更好的收成。牲畜越养越多、越养越好,农作物收成也节节高升,这就是新的四田耕作法的结果。
At the same time, landholdings were rearranged so that each farmer had a consolidated holding—his own farm—with clear boundaries. This replaced the medieval system in which a farmer had a strip or a portion of each of the three large common fields into which the village land was divided. You did not have your own farm; the farm was the village’s, though its ownership lay with the lord. The village made decisions about what was to be planted, where, and when, and everyone’s cattle grazed on the fallow ground. Outside the three common fields was waste ground, marsh or woodland, also available to everyone for grazing or for collecting thatch and firewood.
在此同时，土地也重新规划,每个农夫都拥有稳固的地权和清楚的分界，这样的规划取代了过去的农地制度——中世纪时期，村庄田地分成三大块公地,每块公地再细分为许多长条（称为条田），每个农民只耕种于一个条田。你没有自己的农场，农场属于整个村落，而农场的所有权握在领主手里。田地要种什么、何时耕种、种在哪里,一概由村落决定;所有人的牛只都放牧在那块休耕地上。除了这三块公共耕地,其他都是荒地、沼泽或林地，除了开放给所有人的牲畜放牧，也供人割取茅草或收集柴薪。
The rearrangement of the land into consolidated holdings was carried out by act of parliament, a special act for each village. The parliament of England was a congress of the great landholders, who had decided that consolidation (or enclosure, as it was known) was necessary for the new agricultural practices to be properly followed. Cultivation of the new crops and the better care of animals needed individual attention, not common control by the village. A landlord who wanted to increase the yield of his lands and so increase the money he could charge in rent could make the adoption of the new practices a requirement for holding a lease to a consolidated farm. A farmer who refused to grow turnips would be thrown out; that is, his lease would not be renewed.
将农地重新整并为清楚的地权是国会的德政,特别针对各村落的情况实施。英国议会可说是集大地主之大成,这些人认为，要让新的耕种法得到切实履践，固定圈围（或称圈地，大家熟知的名称）有其必要。种植新作物、照顾牲畜都需要个人投注心力，无须整个村落共同控制。地主若想增益其土地收成、提高收取的租金，可以在租约里加上一个条件:租用重划农地的人必须采行新的农耕法，拒绝种芜菁的农夫会被淘汰出局，换句话说，租约到期后不会得到续约。
The consolidation was carefully done. Commissioners examined everyone in the village to establish what their existing rights were. The right to farm so many strips in the common fields and the right to graze on the common lands was translated into the right to a consolidated holding of a certain size. The people who suffered from the rearrangement were cottagers who had the right only to graze on the common lands; they received a small plot that was no good for anything. These were the people most likely to leave for the cities. But overall, the new agricultural practices on consolidated holdings required more labor, not less. There was a general exodus to the cities but this was because the population was growing rapidly.
重划工作进行得甚是审慎。负责的官员先对所有的村民仔细调查，确定他们目前拥有哪些权益，然后将每个人在公地的哪些区块工作、在公有地放牧的权利换算成某个或大或小的重划地的所有权。最吃亏的是那些先前只能在公地上放牧的村民，他们只能分到弹丸之地,什么好处也没有。这些人是最可能离开乡村、前往城市谋生的一群。不过，整体而言，在新规划地上以新的方法耕作，所需的劳动力不减反增。乡村人口确实有流向城市的趋势，但这是人口快速增长所致。
The increase in agricultural productivity made the growth of cities possible. Overall, a smaller proportion of people could provide the food for the whole. England was the first large, modern state to make this leap. There were agricultural innovators in France who wanted to see a similar consolidation of holdings but the peasants there owned the land and were attached to their communal life; even an absolutist monarchy could not push them around.
农业生产力增加，城市的成长成为可能。整体来说,现在更少的人就能提供所有人的粮食。英国是世上第一个有此重大跃进的现代大国。法国一些农业改良者见贤思齐，也想做类似的土地重划，可是法国的土地为农民所有，共治生活的观念根深蒂固，就连专制君主也动不了分毫。
From the mid-eighteenth century onward, the Industrial Revolution in England moved in lockstep with the Agricultural Revolution. Instead of cotton and wool being spun and woven by workers in their cottages, the business was transferred to factories, where new inventions, powered first by waterwheel and then by steam engines, did the work. The workers became custodians and maintainers of the equipment, working by the clock and for a boss instead of being their own master. The population of towns with cotton mills and woolen mills soared. All the new economic activity was knitted together first by a network of canals and then by the railways. There was at last a nation where bulk goods could be transported cheaply to every part of it.
•工业革命衔接农业革命
18世纪中期以后，英国的工业革命和农业革命开始衔接，相辅相成。棉花、羊毛不再交给村里的工人去纺纱织布，这个差事转由工厂代劳。这些工厂拥有最新发明，一开始是以水车当动力，接着是蒸汽引擎。劳工变成机器的照顾者和维修者,他们按时上下班，替老板工作,不再是自己的主人。设有棉花厂和毛料厂的市镇，人口节节高升;先是拜运河水道网络之赐，之后是铁路网,所有的新兴经济活动就此得到连结。终于,有个国家能够以便宜的价格将大宗货品运输到其他每一个角落。
England did not plan its Industrial Revolution. It was facilitated because in England, the parliament controlled the government. Absolutist governments in Europe planned, promoted, and protected industry in order to increase the economic and military power of the state. The nobility and landed gentlemen of England who composed the parliament were themselves involved in the new economic activity and were more inclined for it to be unfettered. The old rules regulating industry and employment were swept aside or allowed to expire.
英国的工业革命并不是计划的产物。它之所以促成，是因为套英国，政府受国会掌控，为了增加国家的经济和军事力量，欧洲各国的专制政府对工业莫不仔细规划，又是促进又是保护。而英国的贵族阶级和土地士绅，也就是国会的组成分子，由于涉身新的经济活动，让它快马加鞭的动机更强。管制工业和聘雇的旧规都被扫到一边，形同虚设。
The social changes produced by the two revolutions were traumatic. But the first urban, industrial nation held out the promise that the common people, who had lived so close to subsistence and had suffered so much, would be brought to an unimagined prosperity.
这两场革命所引发的社会变迁是痛苦的。然而，世上第一个工业兼都会国家提出了这样的远景:它将带领过去只够活命、饱受艰辛的平民百姓，迈向一种无可想象的富裕。
