A Cambridge professor says that a change in drinking habits was the reason for the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Anjana Ahuja reports
1
AAlan Macfarlane, professor of anthropological science at King's College, Cambridge, has, like other historians, spend decades wrestling with the enigma of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular Big Bang – the world – changing birth of industry – happen in Britain? And why did it strike at the end of the 18th century?
一名剑桥大学的教授认为饮品习惯的改变是美国工业革命的原因。Anjana Abuja 报道
2
BMacfarlane compares the puzzle to a combination lock. 'There are about 20 different factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen,' he says. For industry to take off, there needs to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour, easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy and a political system that allows this to happen. While this was the case for England, other nations, such as Japan, the Netherlands and France also met some of these criteria but were not industrialising. 'All these factors must have been necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution,' says Macfarlane. 'After all, Holland had everything except coal, while China also had many of these factors. Most historians are convinced there are one or two missing factors that you need to open the lock.'
A 像其他人类学家一样，剑桥大学国王学院的人类科学家教授Alan Macfarlane花了几十年时间研究工业革命之谜。为什么这一特大爆发性事件（带来世界性改变的工业启蒙）发生在英国？又为什么发生在18世纪末？
3
CThe missing factors, he proposes, are to be found in almost every kitchen cupboard. Tea and beer, two of the nation's favourite drinks, fuelled the revolution. The antiseptic properties of tannin, the active ingredient in tea, and of hops in beer – plus the fact that both are made with boiled water – allowed urban communities to flourish at close quarters without succumbing to water-borne diseases such as dysentery. The theory sounds eccentric but once he starts to explain the detective work that went into his deduction, the skepticism gives way to wary admiration. Macfarlane's case has been strengthened by support from notable quarters – Roy Porter, the distinguished medical historian, recently wrote a favourable appraisal of his research.
B Macfarlane将这一问题比作密码锁。“大约有20种不同的因素，这些因素都需要在工业革命发生前出现，”他说。要让工业飞速发展，需要有技术和能源来运作工厂，需要大量的城市人口以提供廉价劳动力，需要便利的交通以运送货物，需要富裕的中产阶级，他们愿意购买大批量生产的产品，以及由市场驱动的经济和允许这种革命发生的政治制度。这是英国的情况，其他国家，诸如日本、荷兰以及法国同样符合这些标准中的一些，但并没有出现工业化。Macfarlane说，“这所有因素对于引发工业革命都是必要而非充分的。”“毕竟，荷兰拥有一切缺没有煤炭，而中国同样具有这些因素中的许多。多数历史学家相信仍然有一两种打开这把密码锁的要素是缺失的。”
4
DMacfarlane had wondered for a long time how the Industrial Revolution came about. Historians had alighted on one interesting factor around the mid-18th century that required explanation. Between about 1650 and 1740, the population in Britain was static. But then there was a burst in population growth. Macfarlane says: 'The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years, and this happened in both rural areas and cities, and across all classes. People suggested four possible causes. Was there a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria around? Unlikely. Was there a revolution in medical science? But this was a century before Lister's revolution*. Was there a change in environmental conditions? There were improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria, but these were small gains. Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century. The only option left is food. But the height and weight statistics show a decline. So the food must have got worse. Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a blank.' Joseph Lister was the first doctor to use antiseptic techniques during surgical operations to prevent infections.
C 他提出，这些缺失的因素可以在几乎每个厨房的碗柜上被找到。茶和啤酒，这两种在英国最受欢迎的饮品，促进了工业革命。茶的有效成分单宁酸的防腐性，以及啤酒中的有效成分蛇麻子——加上两者都是用开水制成这一要素——使得现代城市能够近距离地发展繁荣，而不需要受制于水源性疾病，例如痢疾。这一理论听上去非常古怪，但是当地开始解释得到这一推断的研究过程时，审慎思考下的认可取代了人们的怀疑。Macfarlane的说法由于名人的支持而更加有力——著名的医学历史家Roy Porter最近对其研究给予了非常正面的好评。
5
EThis population burst seemed to happen at just right time to provide labour for the Industrial Revolution. 'When you start moving towards an industrial revolution, it is economically efficient to have people living close together,' says Macfarlane. 'But then you get disease, particularly from human waste.' Some digging around in historical records revealed that there was a change in the incidence of water-borne disease at that time, especially dysentery. Macfarlane deduced that whatever the British were drinking must have been important in regulating disease. He says, 'We drank beer. For a long time, the English were protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops, which were added to help preserve the beer. But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt, the basic ingredient of beer. The poor turned to water and gin and in the 1720s the mortality rate began to rise again. Then it suddenly dropped again. What caused this?'
D 关于工业是怎么发生的，Macfarlane思考了很久。历史学家们偶然发现了18世纪中叶一个需要解释的有趣要素。大约1650年到1740年之间，英国人口非常稳定。但随后出现了人口数量激增。Macfarlane说：“在20年的时间里婴儿死亡率减半，在乡村地区和城市都是如此，在各个阶层也是如此。人们提出四种可能性的原因。是周围的病毒和细菌发生了变化了吗？未必。是医学科学发生了革命吗？但这处于Lister医学革命之前一个世纪（Joseph Lister是第一位将抗菌技术用于手术过程以防止感染的医生）。是环境条件发生了改变吗？农业的进步消灭了痢疾，但这仅仅是很小的成就。公共卫生直至19世纪才变得广泛。剩下唯一可能性就是食物。但身高和体重数据有所下降。因此食物因素一定是变差了。解释儿童死亡率减少的努力似乎一无所获。”
6
FMacfarlane looked to Japan, which has also developing large cities about the same time, and also had no sanitation. Water-borne diseases had a much looser grip on the Japanese population than those in Britain. Could it be the prevalence of tea in their culture? Macfarlane then noted that the history of tea in Britain provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates. Tea was relatively expensive until Britain started a direct clipper trade with China in the early 18th century. By the 1740s, about the time that infant mortality was dipping, the drink was common. Macfarlane guessed that the fact that water had to be boiled, together with the stomach-purifying properties of tea meant that the breast milk provided by mothers was healthier than it had ever been. No other European nation sipped tea like the British, which, by Macfarlane's logic, pushed these other countries out of contention for the revolution.
E 人口激增似乎发生在了合适的时间，来为了工业革命提供劳动力。“当你开始走向一场工业革命时，人们住得很近在经济上讲是高效的，” Macfarlane说。“但随后你会经历疾病，尤其是来自人类垃圾的疾病。”一些研究历史记录的人指出当时水源性疾病的发生率出现了改变，尤其是痢疾。Macfarlane推断，英国人正在饮用的东西对于控制疾病一定非常重要。他说，“我们饮用啤酒。长久以来，英国人收到蛇麻子中强抗菌剂的保护，添加蛇麻子是为了保存啤酒。但是17世纪晚期麦芽的税收有所增加，它是啤酒的基本成分。穷人转而饮用水和杜松子酒，到了18世纪20年代，死亡率再次上升。之后再次突然下降。是什么引发了这种情况？”
7
GBut, if tea is a factor in the combination lock, why didn't Japan forge ahead in a tea-soaked industrial revolution of its own? Macfarlane notes that even though 17th-century Japan had large cities, high literacy rates, even a futures market, it had turned its back on the essence of any work-based revolution by giving up labour-saving devices such as animals, afraid that they would put people out of work. So, the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically advanced entered the 19th century having 'abandoned the wheel'.
F Macfarlane关注了日本的情况，当时日本同样是在发展大城市，并且同样没有建立公共卫生系统。水源性疾病对于日本人的影响比英国人小。是因为在他们的文化中茶更盛行吗？Macfarlane随机指出英国的茶历史存在时间上的巨大巧合。茶是相对昂贵的，直至18世纪早期英国同中国建立了直接的帆船贸易。到18世纪40年代，大约在婴儿死亡率降低的时代，这种饮品很普遍。Macfarlane猜测水需要煮开，且茶中含有净化胃的物质，这意味着母乳比之前任何时候都更加健康。没有任何其他欧洲国家像英国一样喝茶，按照Macfarlane的逻辑，这使其他国家没有进入工业革命的竞争行列。