Name: 企業 [2/23] | 誕生 (THE CORPORATION [2/23] | Birth)
Uploaded: 2026-02-25T07:31:20.000Z
Duration: 4 min 32 s

The modern corporation has grown out of the industrial age.

現代公司是從工業時代發展而來的。

The industrial age began in 1712 when an Englishman named Thomas Newcomen invented a steam driven pump to pump water out of the English coal mine.

工業時代始於 1712 年，當時一位名叫湯瑪斯·紐科門的英國人發明瞭蒸汽驅動泵，用來將煤礦裡的水抽出來。

程度副詞

So the English coal miners could get it more coal to mine rather than hauling buckets of water out of the mine.

這樣一來，英國的礦工就能挖到更多煤礦，而不是把水桶從礦裡搬出來。

And then it became more steel per man hour, more textiles per man hour, more automobiles per man hour, and

然後是每工時生產更多鋼鐵、更多紡織品、更多汽車，

today it's more chips per man hour, more gizmos per man hour.

而今天則是每工時生產更多晶片、更多小玩意。

The system is basically the same, producing more sophisticated products.

這個系統基本上是一樣的，生產更精密產品。

Today, the dominant role of corporations in our lives is essentially a product of roughly the past century.

如今，公司在我們生活中扮演的主導角色，基本上是過去一百年來的產物。

Corporations were originally associations of people who were chartered by a state to perform some particular function, like a group of people want to build a bridge over the charles river or something like that.

公司原本是人民協會，由州政府特許來執行特定功能，就像一群人想在查爾斯河上建造橋樑之類的。

There were very few chartered corporations in early United States history.

美國早期歷史中，由州政府特許的公司非常少。

And the ones that existed had clear stipulations in their state issued charters, how long they could operate, the amount of capitalization, what they made or did or maintained, a turnpike, whatever was in their charter.

而那些存在的公司，在州政府頒發的特許狀裡有明確規定，像是它們能營運多久、資本額多少、生產或從事什麼、維護收費公路等，一切都寫在特許狀裡。

They didn't own or couldn't own another corporation.

它們不能擁有或不能擁有另一家公司。

Their shareholders were liable, and so on.

In both law and the culture, the corporation was considered a subordinate entity that was a gift from the people in order to serve the public good.

無論在法律上或文化上，公司都被視為人民為了公共利益而賦予的附屬實體。

So you have that history, and we shouldn't be misled by it.

所以我們有這段歷史，不應該被誤導。

It's not as if those were the halcyon days when all corporations served the public trust.

並不是說那些是所有公司都信守公共信託的黃金時代。

But there's a lot to learn from the civil war and the industrial revolution created enormous growth in corporations.

但從內戰和工業革命中，我們可以學到很多，它們創造了公司巨大的成長。

And so there was an explosion of railroads who got large federal subsidies of land, Banking, heavy manufacturing.

於是鐵路爆炸式成長，獲得了大量的聯邦補助，包括土地、銀行和重工業。

And corporate lawyers a century and a half ago realized they needed more power to operate and wanted to remove some of the constraints that had historically been placed on the corporate forum.

一百五十年前，公司的律師們意識到他們需要更大的權力來營運，並想移除歷史上對公司論壇施加的一些限制。

The 14th amendment was passed at the end of the civil war to give equal rights to black people.

第十四修正案在內戰結束時通過，旨在賦予黑人平等的權利。

And therefore it said, no state can deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

是以，其中提到，任何州都不得在沒有正當法律程序的情況下，剝奪任何人的生命、自由或財產。

And that was intended to prevent the states from taking away life, liberty or property from black people, as they had done for so much of our history.

這原本是為了防止各州像過去歷史上那樣，剝奪黑人的生命、自由或財產。

And what happens is the corporations come into court, and

corporation lawyers are very clever and they say, oh, you can't deprive a person of life, liberty or property.

公司律師非常聰明，他們說，哦，你們不能剝奪一個人的生命、自由或財產。

We are a person, a corporation is a person, and the supreme court goes along with that.

我們是人，公司也是人，最高法院也同意了這點。

And what was particularly grotesque about this was that the 14th amendment was passed to protect newly freed slaves.

這件事特別荒謬的地方在於，第十四修正案是為了保護剛獲得自由的奴隸而通過的。

So, for instance, between 1890 and 1910, there were 307 cases brought before the court under the 14th Amendment, 288 of these brought by corporations, 19 by African Americans.

所以，舉例來說，在1890到1910年間，有307件根據第十四修正案提起的訴訟，其中288件是由公司提出的，只有19件是由非裔美國人提出的。

600,000 people were killed to get rights for people.

60萬人喪生才爭取到人民的權利。

And then, with strokes of the pen, over the next 30 years, judges applied those rights to capital and property while stripping them from people.

接著，在接下來的30年裡，法官們輕描淡寫地將這些權利應用於資本和財產，卻剝奪了人民的權利。

Canada's most popular documentary, the Corporation.

加拿大最受歡迎的紀錄片，《公司》。