TPO-17 Reading 1翻译

Europes EarlySea Tradewith Asia欧亚地区早期的海洋贸易In thefourteenth century,a numberof politicaldevelopments cutEurope*s overlandtraderoutes tosouthern andeastern Asia,with whichEurope hadhad importantand highlyprofitablecommercial tiessince thetwelfth century.This development,coming asit didwhenthe bottomhad fallenout of the Europeaneconomy,provided animpetus to along-held desireto securedirect relationswith the East byestablishing asea trade.Widelyreported,if somewhatdistrusted,accounts byfigures likethe famoustraveler fromVenice,Marco Polo,of thewillingness ofpeople inChina totrade withEuropeans andof theimmensityof thewealth to be gainedby suchcontact madethe ideairresistible.Possibilities fortrade seemedpromising,but nohope existedfor maintainingthe traditionalroutesover land.A newway hadto befound.自12世纪起，欧洲就已经建立起与南亚和东亚之间高度互利的贸易关系，但14世纪时，政治的发展切断了双方的陆路贸易路线政治的发展在将欧洲经济带入谷底的同时，也提供了一个新契机，通过建立一个欧洲与东方的海上航路确保两者之间直接的贸易往来，实现长久以来的愿景对此有诸多报道，有些可能不足为信，威尼斯著名旅行家马可•波罗在其书中就描述了中国人希望和欧洲人通商的意愿，认为通过贸易关系欧洲可以获得巨额财富，他的这些描述让欧洲人难以抗拒双方贸易有无限商机，前景看好，但传统的陆路贸易已然无望，所以开辟新的贸易路线势在必行The chiefproblem wastechnological:How werethe Europeansto reachthe EastEuropesmaritime traditionhad developedin thecontext ofeasily navigableseas-theMediterranean,the Baltic,and,toalesser extent,the NorthSea betweenEngland and theContinent—not ofvast oceans.New typesof shipswere needed,new methodsof findingonesway,new techniquesfor financingso vasta scheme.The sheerscale of the investmentittook tobegin commercialexpansion atsea reflectsthe immensityof theprofits thatsuchEast-West tradecould create.Spices werethe mostsought-after commodities.Spices notonlydramatically improvedthe tasteof theEuropean dietbut alsowere usedtomanufacture perfumesand certainmedicines.But evenhigh-priced commoditieslikespices hadtobetransported inlarge bulkin orderto justifythe expenseand troubleofsailing aroundthe Africancontinent allthe wayto Indiaand China.技术问题最为重要欧洲人如何到达东方？欧洲的航海传统是在那些易于航行的海域中建立和发展起来的——地中海、波罗的海，以及一条比较狭长的海域，英格兰和欧洲大陆之间的北海，而这些都并非广阔的海洋因此，开辟新的航线就需要新型的轮船、新的导航技术，以及支持这一庞大计划的新的融资技术开启海上商业扩张投入的资金规模反映出东西方贸易所能创造出的巨大财富香料在当时成为最受欢迎的商品，不仅显著提高了欧洲菜肴的口感，同时也被用于制作香水和一些药品但即使是香料这样的高价商品也不得不大批量运输，以平衡绕行非洲运输至中国和印度所耗费的巨额成本和麻烦The principalseagoing shipused throughoutthe MiddleAges was the galley,a long,low shipfitted withsails butdriven primarilyby oars.The largestgalleys hadas manyas50oarsmen Sincethey hadrelatively shallowhulls,they wereunstable whendriven bysail orwhenon roughwater:hence theywere unsuitablefor thevoyage totheEast.Even iftheyhugged theAfrican coastline,they hadlittle chanceof survivinga crossingof theIndianOcean.Shortly after1400,shipbuilders begandeveloping anew typeof vesselproperlydesigned tooperate inrough,open water:the caravel.It hada widerand deeperhull thanthegalley andhence couldcarry morecargo:increased stabilitymade it possible toaddmultiple mastsand sails.In thelargest caravels,two mainmasts heldlarge squaresails thatprovidedthe bulkofthethrust drivingthe shipforward,while asmaller forwardmast heldatriangular-shaped sail,called alateen sail,which couldbe movedinto avariety ofpositionsto maneuverthe ship.中世纪应用最为广泛的海船是划桨帆船，船体低矮狭长能够使用帆，但主要还是靠浆操控最大的划桨帆船有50个划手由于船体相对较浅，靠帆航行或是在汹涌的海面上航行时很难保持稳定因此它们不适合在去往东方的航线上航行即使紧贴着非洲海岸线行驶，这种船也很难穿越印度洋15世纪初，造船专家们开始研制一种能够适用于波涛汹涌的开放海域的新型船只——轻快帆船这种海船船体比划桨帆船更宽更深，因此可以运送更多的货物，稳定性的提升使得船体能够增加多个桅杆和船帆最大型的轻快帆船上，两根主桅杆撑起大块船帆就能够提供足够的推力驱动帆船前进，同时一个小型的前桅杆撑起一块三角形船帆，这种船帆叫做三角帆，它可以移动到不同位置控制帆船The astrolabehad longbeen theprimary instrumentfor navigation,having beenintroducedin theeleventh century.It operatedby measuringthe heightoftheSun andthefixed stars:by calculatingthe anglescreated bythese points,it determinedthe degreeoflatitude atwhich onestood Theproblem ofdetermining longitude,though,was notsolveduntil theeighteenth century.By theearly thirteenth century,Western Europeanshad alsodevelopedand putinto usethe magneticcompass,which helpedwhen cloudsobliteratedboth theSun andthe stars.Also beginningin thethirteenthcentury,there werenew mapsrefinedby precisecalculations andthe reportsof sailorsthat madeitpossibleto traceonespath withreasonable accuracy.Certain institutionaland practicalnorms hadbecomeestablished aswell.A maritimecode knownastheConsulate ofthe Sea,which originatedin the westernMediterranean regioninthefourteenth century,won acceptanceby amajorityof seagoers asthe normativecode formaritime conduct;it definedsuch mattersasthe authorityof aships officers,protocols ofcommand,pay structures,the rightsof sailors,andtherules ofengagement whenships metone anotheron thesea-lanes.Thus byabout1400the keyelements werein placeto enableEurope tobegin itsseaward adventure.自11世纪星盘引入欧洲以来，它已经成为航海的重要工具星盘通过测定太阳和恒星的高度来计算罗盘与星体之间的夹角，并以此确定测量者所处的纬度（而经度测量的难题，直到18世纪才得以解决）13世纪初，西欧人也发明并开始使用磁罗盘，在云彩遮挡住太阳和星星的情况下帮助他们辨识方向也是在13世纪初期，经过精密计算，绘制的地图更为精准，加上航海日志，使航行变得可靠而准确航海制度和实际规范也日趋完善14世纪，一部起源于地中海西部地区的《海运法典》为大多数水手们所接受，成为海事行为的规范标准法典规定了船长的职权范围、命令协议、薪酬结构、水手们的权利，以及航行中与其他船只的交战规则正是这1400多个重要的因素的具备，欧洲人才能够开启他们的海上冒险之旅。