GRE阅读练习： 产能过剩和产能不足如何解决

>>GRE阅读文章：GRE阅读练习： 产能过剩和产能不足如何解决

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In 1804 Jean-Baptiste Say enrolled in the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris to learn the principles of spinning cotton.

1804年，让·巴蒂斯特·萨伊在巴黎国民工艺美院报名入学，学习纺织棉花的原理。

The new student was 37 years old, points out his biographer, Evert Schoorl, with a pregnant wife, four children and a successful career in politics and letters trailing behind him.

他的传记作者艾佛特·斯库尔 (Evert Schoorl)指出，这名新学生当时已经37岁，有一位已经怀孕的妻子、4个孩子以及在政界和文坛的功成名就。

To resume his studies, he had turned down two lucrative offers from France's most powerful man, Napoleon Bonaparte.

为了重新开始学习，他已经拒绝了来自当时法国最有权势的人——拿破仑·波拿巴的两次厚邀。

The ruler would have paid him handsomely to write in support of his policies.

这位统治者本来要重金聘请他，让他撰写支持他的政策的文章。

But rather than “deliver orations in favour of the usurper”, Say decided instead to build a cotton mill, spinning yarn not policy.

但是，萨伊不但没有“发表美化这位篡位者的文章”，反而决定建造一座棉纺厂，纺纱织布，而不是制定政策。

Napoleon was right to value (and fear) Say's pen.

拿破仑重视(并害怕)萨伊的这支笔是对的。

As a pamphleteer, editor, scholar and adviser, he was a passionate advocate for free speech, trade and markets.

作为一名小册子作者、编辑、学者和顾问，他是一位自由言论、自由贸易和自由市场的热情支持者。

He had imbibed liberal principles from his heavily annotated copy of Adam Smith's “The Wealth Of Nations” and bolstered his patriotic credentials in battle against Prussian invaders. (During breaks in the fighting, he discussed literature and political economy with other learned volunteers “almost within cannonballs' reach”. )

他从他那本满是注释的亚当·斯密的《国富论》的书中汲取了自由原则，并在抗击普鲁士入侵者的战斗巩固了他的爱国者声誉(在战斗间隙，他曾与其他几位博学的自愿者“几乎是在炮弹射程之内”，讨论文学和政治经济学。)

His greatest work was “A Treatise on Political Economy”, a graceful exposition (and extension) of Smith's economic ideas.

他最伟大的作品是《政治经济学概论》(A Treatise on Political Economy)，这是一部对亚当·斯密的经济学思想做出了优雅的阐释(和扩充)的著作。

In Say's time, as nowadays, the world economy combined strong technological progress with fitful demand, spurts of innovation with bouts of austerity.

在萨伊那个时代，如同现在一样，世界经济集强大的技术进步与断断续续的需求、创新的迸发与紧缩的发作于一身。

In France output of yarn grew by 125% from 1806 to 1808, when Say was starting his factory.

就在萨伊创办自己的工厂时，法国的纱线产出在1806年到1808年间增长了125%。

In Britain the Luddites broke stocking frames to stop machines taking their jobs.

在英国，卢德派分子已经开始破坏织袜机，以阻止机器抢了他们的饭碗。

On the other hand, global demand was damaged by failed ventures in South America and debilitated by the eventual downfall of Napoleon.

另一方面，全球需求因为在南美洲的失败投机而元气大伤，因为拿破仑的最终倒台而一蹶不振。

In Britain government spending was cut by 40% after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

在英国，1815年的滑铁卢战役后，政府开支被砍掉了40%。

Some 300,000 discharged soldiers and sailors were forced to seek alternative employment.

大约30000名解甲归田的士兵和水手被迫另谋生路。

The result was a tide of overcapacity, what Say's contemporaries called a “general glut”.

其结果是一波产能过剩，即萨伊的同辈人所说的“总体性供过于求”(general glut)。

Britain was accused of inundating foreign markets, from Italy to Brazil, much as China is blamed for dumping products today.

就像当今的中国一样，当时的英国被指向从意大利到巴西的外国市场倾销商品。

In 1818 a visitor to America found “not a city, nor a town, in which the quantity of goods offered for sale is not infinitely greater than the means of the buyers”.

1818年，一位前往美国的游客发现“没有一座城市或者城镇，其被用于出售的商品数量不是无限地大于购买者能力”。

It was this “general overstock of all the markets of the universe” that came to preoccupy Say and his critics.

就是这种“世间所有市场的总体存货过剩”最终吸引了萨伊和他的评论。

In trying to explain it, Say at first denied that a “general” glut could exist.

在试图解释这种过剩时，萨伊一上来就否认，“总体性的”供过于求可能存在。

Some goods can be oversupplied, he conceded.

他承认，有些商品可能是被过度供给了。

But goods in general cannot.

但是，商品总体是不可能的。

His reasoning became known as Say's law: “it is production which opens a demand for products”, or, in a later, snappier formulation: supply creates its own demand.

他的推理成为了著名的萨伊定律(Say's law):“正是生产开启对产品的需求”，或者是用后来更时髦的公式来说，就是：供给创造自己的需求(supply creates its own demand)。

This proposition, he admitted, has a “paradoxical complexion, which creates a prejudice against it”.

他承认，这种观点有一种“似是而非的情况，这造成了一种对它的偏见”。

To the modern ear, it sounds like the foolhardy belief that “if you build it, they will come”.

对于现代人来说，这听上去像是那种“只要建，就有人来”的愚蠢信条。

Rick Perry, America's energy secretary, was ridiculed after a recent visit to a West Virginia coal plant for saying, “You put the supply out there and the demand will follow.”

日前，美国能源部长里克·佩里在访问了西佛吉尼亚的一座煤矿后，曾因为“把供给摆在那里，需求就会随之而来”的言论遭到嘲笑。

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