Perhaps the defining feature of the global economy is precisely that it is global.
或许全球经济之所以叫做全球经济正是因为其“全球性”特征。
Toys from China, copper from Chile, T-shirts from Bangladesh, wine from New Zealand, coffee from Ethiopia, and tomatoes from Spain.
中国的玩具，智力的胡椒，孟加拉的T恤，新西兰的红酒，埃塞俄比亚的咖啡，西班牙的西红柿……
Like it or not, globalisation is a fundamental feature of the modern economy.
不管人们是否喜欢，全球化成为了现代经济的本质特征。
In the early 1960s, world trade in merchandise was less than 20% of world economic output, or gross domestic product (GDP). Now, it is around 50% but not everyone is happy about it.
20世纪60年代初，世界货物贸易占全球经济总量或者全球GDP的比例都不到20%。现在，这一比例在50%左右，不过，并不是人人都对此感到欢喜。
There is probably no other issue where the anxieties of ordinary people are so in conflict with the near-unanimous approval of economists.
放眼世界，除了贸易全球化，可能再也找不到第二个能让普通人忧心忡忡，而经济学者们几乎一致支持的话题了。
Arguments over trade tend to frame globalisation as a policy - maybe even an ideology - fuelled by acronymic trade deals like TRIPS and TTIP.
在TRIPS和TTIP等贸易协定的推动下，有关贸易的争论逐渐将全球化框定为一种政策，有可能甚至是一种意识形态 。
But perhaps the biggest enabler of globalisation has not been a free trade agreement, but a simple invention: the shipping container. It is just a corrugated steel box, 8ft (2.4m) wide, 8ft 6in (2.6m) high, and 40ft (12m) long but its impact has been huge.
可是，或许全球化的最大推动力并不是自由贸易协定，而是一个简单的发明：货运集装箱。它不仅只是一种8英尺（2.4米）宽，8英尺6英寸（2.6米）高以及40英尺（12米）长的波纹钢箱，还产生了巨大的影响。
Consider how a typical trade journey looked before its invention.
不妨回想一下在货运集装箱出现前，国际贸易都是什么样子。
In 1954, an unremarkable cargo ship, the SS Warrior, carried merchandise from New York to Bremerhaven in Germany. It held just over 5,000 tonnes of cargo - including food, household goods, letters and vehicles - which were carried as 194,582 separate items in 1,156 different shipments.
1954年，一艘不起眼的货船“SS战士”号将货物从纽约运往德国不来梅港(Bremerhaven)。它载有5 000多吨货物，包括食品、家庭用品、信件和车辆。这些货物大大小小一共194 582件，装在1 156个货箱中。
Just keeping track of the consignments as they moved around the dockside warehouses was a nightmare. But the real challenge was physically loading such ships.
就算是在码头仓库周围搬动，要查找这些货物的搬运情况简直就是一场噩梦。不过，真正的难题还是如何靠人力将这些货物运到船上。
Loading by hand
人力装载
Longshoremen would pile the cargo onto a wooden pallet on the dock. The pallet would be hoisted in a sling and deposited in the hold.
码头搬运工人通常会将货物堆放在码头上的木托盘上。再由吊架吊起托盘，然后再将货物放到船的货舱中。
More longshoremen carted each item into a snug corner of the ship, poking the merchandise with steel hooks until it settled into place against the curves and bulkheads of the hold, skilfully packed so that it would not shift on the high seas.
还需要有更多的搬运工再把货物挪到船的狭窄角落里，用钢钩巧妙地使货箱靠着船舱四壁，使其不会在航行时摇晃。
There were cranes and forklifts but much of the merchandise, from bags of sugar heavier than a man to metal bars the weight of a small car, was shifted with muscle power.
虽然码头上有起重机和叉车，但大部分的货品，从比人重的糖袋，到有一辆小汽车那么重的金属块，都是靠人力装载。
This was dangerous work. In a large port, someone would be killed every few weeks. In 1950, New York averaged half a dozen serious incidents every day, and its port was safer than many.
这份工作很危险。在大型港口，每几周都会有工人死亡。1950年，纽约港每天平均发生六起严重事故，而相比其他许多港口，纽约港算是个安全的港口。
Researchers studying the SS Warrior's trip to Bremerhaven concluded the ship had taken ten days to load and unload, as much time as it had spent crossing the Atlantic.
研究驶往不来梅港的“SS战士”号货船的研究人员总结到，这艘船花了十天装货和卸货，与穿行大西洋所用的时间一样多。
In today's money, the cargo cost around $420 (£335) a tonne to move. Given typical delays in sorting and distributing the cargo by land, the whole journey might take three months.
按今天的费用算，船上每公吨货物的运费是420美元（3000人民币）。考虑到陆上分拣和分发货物的常规延误，整个旅程可能共需要三个月。
Sixty years ago, then, shipping goods internationally was costly, chancy, and immensely time-consuming. Surely there had to be a better way?
六十年前，国际货运成本高昂，风险巨大，极其费时。肯定会有比这更好的方式吧？
Vested interests
既得利益
Indeed there was: put all the cargo into big standard boxes, and move those.
当然有，那就是把所有货物都装进很大的标准货箱里，然后再搬运这些货箱。
But inventing the box was the easy bit - the shipping container had already been tried in various forms for decades. The real challenge was overcoming the social obstacles.
发明箱子很容易——几十年来，人们试过了各种样子的货运集装箱。真正难克服的是横亘在不同社会团体之间的障碍。
To begin with, the trucking companies, shipping companies, and ports could not agree on a standard size.
首先，货运公司，航运公司和港口就不能在箱子的标准尺寸上达成一致。
Some wanted large containers while others wanted smaller versions; perhaps because they specialised in heavy goods or trucked on narrow mountain roads.
有些人可能从事重型货物运输，想要大型集装箱，而有些则可能主要是在狭窄的山路上运输，所以想要小的。
Then there were the powerful dockworkers' unions, who resisted the idea. Yes the containers would make the job of loading ships safer but it would also mean fewer jobs.
还有各个大型码头工人工会的阻挠，他们根本不赞成使用集装箱。的确，集装箱会使船的装载工作更安全，同时也意味着有人要失业。
US regulators also preferred the status quo. The sector was tightly bound with red tape, with separate sets of regulations determining how much that shipping and trucking companies could charge.
美国监管机构也倾向于保持现状。运输行业要遵守的繁文缛节错综复杂，不同的监管规定决定了各航运和汽运企业的收费标准。
Why not simply let companies charge whatever the market would bear - or even allow shipping and trucking companies to merge, and put together an integrated service?
为什么不让公司直接按市场行情收费 ，或者允许航运和汽运企业合并，提供一体化服务呢？
Perhaps the bureaucrats too were simply keen to preserve their jobs. Such bold ideas would have left them with less to do.
也许官僚们也只是热衷于守护自己的饭碗。这样大胆的想法可能会让他们无事可做，最终下岗。
Spotting an opportunity
发现机遇
The man who navigated this maze of hazards, and who can fairly be described as the inventor of the modern shipping container system, was called Malcom McLean.
走出这个迷宫的人简直可以说发明了现代运输集装箱系统。这个人名叫麦克·麦伦（Malcom McLean）。
McLean did not know anything about shipping but he was a trucking entrepreneur. He knew plenty about trucks, plenty about playing the system, and all there was to know about saving money.
麦伦对航运一无所知，但他却是一位经营货运的创业家。他很了解卡车以及整个汽车运输系统运作，知道怎样降低成本。
As Marc Levinson explains in his book, The Box, McLean not only saw the potential of a shipping container that would fit neatly onto a flat bed truck, he also had the skills and the risk-taking attitude needed to make it happen.
正如马克·莱文森（Marc Levinson）在他《货运集装箱》一书中写到的那样，麦伦不仅预见到集装箱可以被整齐地堆放在平板卡车上，还有能力和甘担风险的态度来实现这一设想。
First, McLean cheekily exploited a legal loophole to gain control of both a shipping company and a trucking company. Then, when dockers went on strike, he used the idle time to refit old ships to new container specifications.
首先，麦伦大胆地利用一个法律漏洞，控制了一家航运公司和一家汽运公司。然后，当码头工人*工罢**时，他就利用空闲时间将旧船按新的集装箱规格进行改造。
He repeatedly plunged into debt. He took on "fat cat" incumbents in Puerto Rico, revitalising the island's economy by slashing shipping rates to the United States.
他不停地借债还债。他在波多黎哥接手了“胖猫”，大幅度削减了到美国的货物运费，重振了岛上经济。
He cannily encouraged New York's Port Authority to make the New Jersey side of the harbour a centre for container shipping.
他大力地鼓动纽约港务局把新泽西港口作为集装箱运输的中心。
But probably the most striking coup took place in the late 1960s, when Malcom McLean sold the idea of container shipping to perhaps the world's most powerful customer: the US Military.
不过，麦伦最伟大的成就可能还是发生在二十世纪六十年代末期，当时他将集装箱运输的想法卖给了当时世界上最大的客户：美国军方。
Impetus of war
战争的推动
Faced with an unholy logistical nightmare in trying to ship equipment to Vietnam, the military turned to McLean's container ships.
面对向越南战场运送物资的难题，军方很快采用了麦伦的集装箱货船运输方式。
Containers work much better when they are part of an integrated logistical system, and the US military was perfectly placed to implement that.
当集装箱成为综合后勤系统的一部分时，集装箱运输效率更高，美军正适合采用这种方法。
Even better, McLean realised that on the way back from Vietnam, his empty container ships could collect payloads from the world's fastest growing economy, Japan.
更妙的是，麦伦意识到，从越南回来的路上，他的空集装箱货船可以顺路从日本这个当时世界上发展最快的经济体带回有价值的货物。
And so trans-Pacific trading began in earnest.
跨太平洋贸易就这样步上了正轨。
A modern shipping port would be unrecognisable to a hardworking longshoreman of the 1950s. Even a modest container ship might carry 20 times as much cargo as the SS Warrior did, yet disgorge its cargo in hours rather than days.
一个现代化的航运港口对于20世纪50年代的勤奋的码头搬运工人来说是完全陌生的概念。即使是一艘小型的集装箱货船，装载能力也可能是“SS战士”号的20倍，而且仅需几个小时就能完成卸载。
Gigantic cranes weighing 1,000 tonnes apiece lock onto containers which themselves weigh upwards of 30 tonnes, and swing them up and over on to a waiting transporter.
重达1000吨的大型起重机吊起30吨重的集装箱，并将其摆放到一旁准备好的运输货车上。
The colossal ballet of engineering is choreographed by computers, which track every container as it moves through a global logistical system.
这场声势浩大的工程“芭蕾舞”是由计算机编排的，它通过全球物流系统能够跟踪每个集装箱。
The refrigerated containers are put in a hull section with power and temperature monitors. The heavier containers are placed at the bottom to keep the ship's centre of gravity low.
冰冻过的集装箱放入通电的、装有温度监测器的船舱中。较重的集装箱放在船舱底部，以保证船的重心尽可能比较低。
The entire process is scheduled to keep the ship balanced.
整个装载过程经过计算机的周密计算，能够全程保持船的平衡。
And after the crane has released one container onto a waiting transporter, it will grasp another before swinging back over the ship, which is being simultaneously emptied and refilled.
在起重机将一个集装箱卸载到运输货车上之后，又马上抓住待装载的另一个集装箱，从而同时进行船的卸载与装载。
Zero-cost transport?
零成本运输？
Not everywhere enjoys the benefits of the containerisation revolution.
不是每个地方都能享受到集装箱革命带来的好处。
Many ports in poorer countries still look like New York in the 1950s. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, remains largely cut off from the world economy because of poor infrastructure.
较贫困国家的许多港口看起来仍然像是20世纪50年代的纽约港。特别是撒哈拉以南的国家，由于基础设施薄弱，在很大程度上与世界经济脱节。
But for an ever-growing number of destinations, goods can now be shipped reliably, swiftly and cheaply.
但是，随着全球贸易的触角延伸到世界上更多地方，货物运输现在十分可靠，快速和廉价。
Rather than the $420 (£335) that a customer would have paid to get the SS Warrior to ship a tonne of goods across the Atlantic in 1954, you might now pay less than $50 (£39).
1954年，用“SS战士”号在大西洋上运送一吨货物要支付420美元（3000人民币），现在顾客可能最多只需要付50美元（350人民币）。
Indeed, economists who study international trade often assume that transport costs are zero. It keeps the mathematics simpler, they say, and thanks to the shipping container, it is nearly true.
事实上，研究国际贸易的经济学家往往将货物的运输成本忽略不计。他们认为，忽略不计国际贸易中的运输费用能简化整个计算，而正是有了货运集装箱的出现，才能实现国际贸易运输成本的“趋零”。
编译：吴越
审校： 朱桀
编辑：翻吧君
英文来源：BBC
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