SECTION 4

In my presentation, I'm going to talk about coffee, and its importance both in economic and social terms.

在我的演讲中，我将讨论咖啡以及它在经济和社会方面的重要性。

We think it was first drunk in the Arab world, but there's hardly any documentary evidence of it before the 1500s, although of course that doesn't mean that people didn't know about it before then.

我们认为它最初被饮用是在阿拉伯国家，但是在16世纪之前几乎没有任何文献证明它存在，当然这并不意味着人们在那之前不知道它。

However, there is evidence that coffee was originally gathered from bushes growing wild in Ethiopia, in the northeast of Africa.

然而，有证据表明，咖啡最初是从非洲东北部的埃塞俄比亚野生的灌木中采集的。

In the early sixteenth century, it was being bought by traders, and gradually its use as a drink spread throughout the Middle East.

在16世纪初，它被商人买下，并逐渐在整个中东地区成为一种饮品。

It's also known that in 1522, in the Turkish city of Constantinople, which was the centre of the Ottoman Empire, the court physician approved its use as a medicine.

在1522年，在土耳其的君士坦丁堡，也就是奥斯曼帝国的中心，宫廷医生批准将其用作药物。

By the mid-1500s, coffee bushes were being cultivated in the Yemen and for the next hundred years this region produced most of the coffee drunk in Africa and the Arab world.

到16世纪中期，也门种植咖啡树，在此后几百年里，这个地区生产了非洲和阿拉伯世界饮用的大部分咖啡。

What's particularly interesting about coffee is its effect on social life.

关于咖啡很有趣的一件事，就是它在社会生活中的影响。

It was rarely drunk at home, but instead people went to coffee houses to drink it.

很少有人在家里喝咖啡，相反，人们会去咖啡店喝。

These people, usually men, would meet to drink coffee and chat about issues of the day.

这些人，通常是男性，会聚在一起喝咖啡，聊一聊当天的时事。

But at the time, this chance to share ideas and opinions was seen as something that was potentially dangerous, and in 1623 the ruler of Constantinople demanded the destruction of all the coffee houses in the city, although after his death many new ones opened, and coffee consumption continued.

但是在当时，这种分享想法和观点的机会被看做是有潜在危险的事情，在1623年，康士坦丁堡的统治者要求毁掉城市所有的咖啡店，尽管在他死后许多新咖啡店开张了，咖啡消费也在持续。

In the seventeenth century, coffee drinking spread to Europe, and here too coffee shops became places where ordinary people, nearly always men, could meet to exchange ideas.

在十七世纪，喝咖啡的潮流传播到了欧洲。咖啡店也成为了消费主体为男性的普通人的聚集地，他们可以见面交流思想的地方。

Because of this, some people said that these places performed a similar function to universities.

正因为如此，有些人说这些地方和大学有类似的功能。

The opportunity they provided for people to meet together outside their own homes and to discuss the topics of the day had an enormous impact on social life, and many social movements and political developments had their origins in coffee house discussions.

咖啡店让人们有机会在家以外聚会并讨论当日话题，这对社会生活产生了巨大的影响，很多社会运动和政治进步都从咖啡屋的讨论中诞生。

In the late 1600s, the Yemeni monopoly on coffee production broke down and coffee production started to spread around the world, helped by European colonisation.

在17世纪末，也门咖啡生产的垄断被打破，咖啡生产因为欧洲的殖民开始在全世界蔓延。

Europeans set up coffee plantations in Indonesia and the Caribbean and production of coffee in the colonies skyrocketed.

欧洲人在印度尼西亚和加勒比地区建立了咖啡种植园，殖民地的咖啡产量激增。

Different types of coffee were produced in different areas, and it's interesting that the names given to these different types, like Mocha or Java coffee, were often taken from the port they were shipped to Europe from.

不同地区生产了不同种类的咖啡。有趣的是，这些不同种类咖啡的名字，比如说摩卡咖啡和爪哇咖啡，通常是以它们被运去欧洲的那个港口命名的。

But if you look at the labour system in the different colonies, there were some significant differences.

但是如果你看一下不同殖民的的劳工系统，就会发现有一些非常重要的区别。

In Brazil and the various Caribbean colonies, coffee was grown in huge plantations and the workers there were almost all slaves.

在巴西和许多加勒比殖民地，咖啡生长在面积广阔的种植园中，工人基本上都是奴隶。

But this wasn't the same in all colonies; for example in Java, which had been colonised by the Dutch, the peasants grew coffee and passed a proportion of this on to the Dutch, so it was used as a means of taxation.

但是并不是所有的殖民地都是这样的，比如说在爪哇——荷兰殖民地，农民生产咖啡，而且把其中的一部分输送到荷兰，所以它是用做税收。

But whatever system was used, under the European powers of the eighteenth century, coffee production was very closely linked to colonisation.

但是无论使用了什么系统，在十八世纪欧洲的权力统治下，咖啡的生产与殖民统治密切相关。

Coffee was grown in ever-increasing quantities to satisfy the growing demand from Europe, and it became nearly as important as sugar production, which was grown under very similar conditions.

为了满足欧洲日益增长的需求，咖啡的种植数量不断增加，而且它基本上成为了和糖同样重要的东西，而糖的生长条件和咖啡差不多。

However, coffee prices were not yet low enough for people to drink it regularly at home, so most coffee consumption still took place in public coffee houses and it still remained something of a luxury item.

然而，咖啡的价格还很高，人们不能经常在家喝咖啡。因此，大多数咖啡消费仍然发生在公共咖啡屋，它仍然是一种奢侈品。

In Britain, however, a new drink was introduced from China, and started to become popular, gradually taking over from coffee, although at first it was so expensive that only the upper classes could afford it.

但是在英国，一种新的饮品从中国引入，然后开始流行起来，逐渐取代了咖啡的地位，虽然一开始它太贵了，只有上层阶级才能买得起。

This was tea, and by the late 1700s it was being widely drunk.

这就是茶，到18世纪末，它已得到广泛的饮用。

However, when the USA gained independence from Britain in 1776, they identified this drink with Britain, and coffee remained the preferred drink in the USA, as it still is today.

然而，当美国在1776年脱离英国独立时，他们将这种饮料与英国联系在一起，但是咖啡仍然是美国人的首选饮品，直到今天。

So, by the early nineteenth century, coffee was already being widely produced and consumed.

因此，到了十九世纪初，咖啡已经被广泛生产和消费。

But during this century, production boomed and coffee prices started to fall.

但在本世纪，咖啡产量激增，咖啡价格开始下跌。

This was partly because new types of transportation had been developed which were cheaper and more efficient.

这在一定程度上是因为开发了成本更低、效率更高的新型交通。

So now, working people could afford to buy coffee - it wasn't just a drink for the middle classes.

所以现在工薪阶层开始能够买得起咖啡，它不再只是中产阶级的饮品。

And this was at a time when large parts of Europe were starting to work in industries.

而这正是欧洲很多地区开始发展工业的时候。

And sometimes this meant their work didn't stop when it got dark: they might have to continue throughout the night.

有时这就意味着他们到天黑工作都不会停止，他们可能要彻夜工作。

So, the use of coffee as a stimulant became important - it wasn't just a drink people drank in the morning, for breakfast.

所以咖啡成为一种重要的提神饮品——它不只是早晨人们作为早餐要喝的东西。

There were also changes in cultivation ...

在种植方面也有一些变化……