where did it come from?

它究竟打哪兒來?

Since about the 14th century, modern capitalism has been rapidly expanding its reach. Some

大概從14世紀開始，現代資本主義迅速向外擴展

would say that it has become a necessary competitive tool within a global economy, and point to

有些人說，它已成為全球經濟中一個必要的競爭工具，它也同時指向

its success as a productive and innovative system. Others say  that capitalism’s end

成功成為一個具生產力和創新的系統。其他人則說資本主義

result causes class inequality, worker exploitation, and stifles freedom. Maybe they’re both

最終導致階級不平等、工人的剝削，並且扼殺自由。也許兩者

right. But what exactly is Capitalism?

都對，但資本主義到底是什麼?

Simply put, Capitalism is a social and economic system where both the means of production

簡單地說，資本主義是社會和經濟系統，而其兼具生產

and any associated trade are privately owned. This isn’t the end-all be-all definition of capitalism.

與任何相關交易都屬私人擁有等兩種手段。唯其並非資本主義的終極定義

But it does illustrate its tenets as opposed to other systems like socialism,

但它也確實說明本身的原則與其他系統相反，像社會主義、

communism, fascism, and a bunch of other “isms”. Generally, societies tend to be mixtures of

共產主義、法西斯主義和一堆其他的「主義」。一般而言，每個社會往往都是

different systems, and pretty much every country is a mixture. So, why is capitalism so pervasive?

不同的系統的混合物，幾乎每一個國家都是一種混合物。那麼，資本主義為何如此普遍？

Well, capitalism grew directly out of failed middle age feudalism. Think of feudalism as

嗯，資本主義直接脫胎自失敗的封建制度的中年期。你可以把封建主義想像成

a lot of tiny dictatorships. The lords would own land and set the rules. Serfs would live

一票小獨裁政權。領主擁有土地和並可制定律法。農奴則生活在

on that land and work the farms in exchange for protection by the lord. But since each

他們的土地，並在農場工作以換取領主的保護。但因每個

system was self contained, neither the lords nor the serfs had any incentive to work harder

系統自成一體，不管領主或農奴，都因缺乏誘因而需

than they had to. A serf could never surpass a lord, and everyone was essentially set for

更努力工作。因此農奴永遠無法超越領主、每個人生來更已被定型

life. In short, feudalism meant that there was no financial competition. And without

簡言之，封建主義意味著沒有金融競爭。而如果沒有

competition, there was no reason to innovate technology or improve their society.

競爭，技術的創新或想要改變社會也就師出無名

So when the serfs finally had enough of being self-sufficient slaves, and revolted, it left

因此，當農奴受夠了成為自給自足的奴隸，而起義，然後

a new class of farmers competing with each other to sell the crops they had previously

留下一類全新的農民會互相競爭出售他們的作物，而他們以往

exchanged for land and protection. This was the birth of modern day capitalist markets,

可是用這些莊稼來換取土地與保護，而這正是現代資本主義市場

and the quote “almighty dollar”, which allowed serfs to become lords themselves if

和所謂「萬能金錢」的誕生，也讓農奴可以成為領主

they were competitive enough in the marketplace. In turn, lords would pay their workers instead

如果他們在市場有足夠的競爭力，反之，如果領主能夠支付工人

of offering housing and protection, transforming a collective into a system of individual self-responsibility.

而非只提供住所和保護，將集體式的轉換成個體式的自我負責系統

After entering the socio-economic system, capitalism spread like wildfire, and became

進入社會經濟制度後，資本主義有如野火燎原，幾乎成為

a part of nearly every country’s policymaking process. Even materially poor third world

所有國家的政策制定過程中的一部分。即便在物資缺乏的第三世界

countries unable to establish free markets or private ownership strive for capitalist

國家，無法建立自由市場和私人所有權爭取資本主義

policy. To find out why capitalism became so attractive and pervasive, check out part

政策也是一樣，要知道資本主義為何如此深具魅力和普遍性，請繼續收看

2 of this video.  

短片的第二部分

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