英語視頻暢談歐美人文風(fēng)情98：倫敦金融城的秘密(一)歷史

The Great City of London, known for its historical landmarks, modern skyscrapers, ancient markets and famous bridges, is arguably the financial capital of the world and home to over eleven thousand people.

大倫敦金融城，因歷史地標(biāo)、現(xiàn)代摩天大樓、古老的市場以及赫赫有名的大橋而知名，可以說是世界的金融首府，以及超過一萬一千人的家。

Wait, what? Eleven thousand?

等等，什么?一萬一千人?

That's right! But the City of London is a different place from London, though London is also known for its historical landmarks, modern skyscrapers, ancient markets, famous bridges and is home to the government, royal family and seven million people.

沒錯!但倫敦金融城是個有別于倫敦的地方，雖然倫敦也因其歷史地標(biāo)、現(xiàn)代摩天大樓、古老的市場以及赫赫有名的大橋而知名，并且是政府、皇室家族及七百萬人的家。

But, if you look map of London crafted by a careful cartographer, that map will have a one-square mile hole near the middle—it's here where the City of London lives inside of the city named London.

但是，如果你查看的是一張由細(xì)心的制圖師所精心繪制的倫敦地圖，這份地圖在靠近中央處會有個一平方英里的洞──它就在這兒，在這個倫敦金融城處在一個叫做倫敦的城市里的位置。

Despite these confusingly close names, the two Londons have separate city halls and elect separate mayors, who collect separate taxes to fund separate police who enforce separate laws.

不顧這些相似到令人困惑的名字，這兩個倫敦有個別的市政廳，選出個別的市長，他們個別課稅，供養(yǎng)執(zhí)行個別法律的個別警方。

The Mayor of the City of London has a fancy title "The Right Honorable the Lord Mayor of London" to match his fancy outfit. He also gets to ride in a golden carriage and work in a Guildhall while the mayor of London has to wear a suit, ride a bike and work in an office building.

倫敦金融城的市長有個花俏的頭銜“正義高尚的倫敦金融城市長大人”來搭配他華麗的衣著。他也能搭乘金色馬車，在市政廳辦公，而倫敦市長需要穿西裝、騎單車并在辦公大樓工作。

The City of London also has its own flag and its own crest, which is awesome and makes London's lack of either twice as sad.

倫敦金融城同樣有自己的旗幟和徽飾，徽飾很酷，讓倫敦相形見絀，兩倍傷心。

To top it off, the City of London gets to act more like one of the countries in the UK than just an oddly located city—for uniquely, the corporation that runs the City of London is older than the United Kingdom by several hundred years.

最糟糕的是，倫敦金融城能夠表現(xiàn)得看起來更像是聯(lián)合王國的國家之一，而不只是個位置怪異的城市──因為很特別地，管理倫敦金融城的財團(tuán)法人比聯(lián)合王國老了好幾百歲。

So how did the UK end up with two Londons, one inside of the other?

所以為何聯(lián)合王國最后會有兩個倫敦，其中一個還在另一個里頭?

Because: Romans.

因為：羅馬人。

Two thousand years ago they came to Great Britain, killed a bunch of druids, and founded a trading post on the River Thames and named it Londonimium.

兩千年前他們來到大不列顛，殺死一堆德魯伊教(古代凱爾特人信奉的一種原始宗教)僧侶，并在泰晤士河上成立交易所并將其命名為Londonimium。

Being Romans, they got to work, doing what Romans do: enforcing laws, increasing trade, building temples, public baths, roads, bridges and a wall to defend their work.

身為羅馬人，他們得工作，做羅馬人會做的事：執(zhí)行法律、提高貿(mào)易、建造廟宇、公共澡堂、道路、橋梁，以及一道保衛(wèi)他們作品的墻。

And it's this wall, which is why the current City of London exists—for though the Romans came, and the Romans went, and kingdoms rose, and kingdoms fell, the wall endured protecting the city within.

而就是這道墻，那就是現(xiàn)今倫敦金融城存在的原因──因為雖然羅馬人來了，然后羅馬人離去，帝國崛起，帝國衰落，這道墻還是持續(xù)保護(hù)里面的城市。

And The City, governing itself and trading with the world, grew rich. A thousand years after the Romans (yet still a thousand years ago) when William the Conqueror came to Great Britain to conqueror everything and begin modern British history, he found the City of London, with its sturdy walls more challenging to defeat than farmers on open fields. So he agreed to recognize the rights and privileges City of Londoners were used to in return for them recognizing him as the new King.

而倫敦金融城，自治并與世界貿(mào)易，變得富裕。在羅馬人之后的一千年(然而仍是距今一千年前)當(dāng)征服者威廉(威廉一世)來到大不列顛征服一切，并開啟現(xiàn)代英國歷史，他發(fā)現(xiàn)了倫敦金融城，有著其堅固的圍墻，要打倒它比擊敗戶外的農(nóng)民們更具挑戰(zhàn)性。所以他同意認(rèn)可倫敦金融城市民當(dāng)時習(xí)慣的權(quán)力和特權(quán)，作為回報，他們承認(rèn)他為新的國王。

Though after the negotiation, William quickly built towers around the City of London, which were just as much about protecting William from the locals within as defending against the Vikings from without.

然而在協(xié)商之后，威廉很快地就在倫敦金融城四周建造塔樓，它對內(nèi)保護(hù)威廉免受當(dāng)?shù)厝饲忠u，正好就和對外抵御維京人一樣重要。

This started a thousand-year long tradition whereby Monarchs always reconfirmed that "yes" the City of London is a special, unique place that's best left to its own business, while simultaneously distrusting it.

這開始了一個長達(dá)千年的傳統(tǒng)，君主們總是借此再次確認(rèn)，“是的”，倫敦金融城是個特別、獨一無二的地方，最好留給他們自己經(jīng)營，但同時也不信任它。

Many monarchs thought the City of London was too powerful and rich. And one even built a new Capital city nearby, named Westminster, to compete with the City of London and hopefully, suck power and wealth away from it. This was the start of the second London.

許多君主認(rèn)為倫敦金融城太強(qiáng)大、富裕了。有位君主甚至在附近建立了新的首都，叫做 Westminster，來與倫敦市競爭，并希望從中獲取力量和財富。這是第二個倫敦的起頭。

As the centuries passed, Westminster grew and merged with nearby towns, eventually surrounding the walled-in, and still separate City of London.

幾個世紀(jì)過去了，Westminster壯大并合并附近城鎮(zhèn)，最后圍繞了有圍墻的、仍是分離的倫敦金融城。

But people began to call the whole urban collection "London," and the name became official when Parliament joined the towns together under a single municipal government with a mayor. But the Mayor of London still doesn't have power over the tiny City of London, which has rules and traditions like nowhere else in the country and possibly the world.

但人們開始稱呼這整個集體城市為“倫敦”，而當(dāng)議會將城鎮(zhèn)結(jié)合在一起，由有個市長的單一地方自治政府治理時，倫敦變成正式的名字。但倫敦市長在這個小小的倫敦金融城還是沒有權(quán)力，倫敦金融城擁有這國家甚至可能這世界其他地方都沒有的規(guī)定和傳統(tǒng)。

For example, the ruling monarch doesn't just enter the City of London on a whim, but instead asks for permission from the Lord Mayor at a ceremony. While it's not required by law, the ceremony is, unusual to say the least.

舉例來說，執(zhí)政君主不能一時興起就進(jìn)入倫敦金融城，而是要在一個儀式上征求市長大人的準(zhǔn)許。雖然這不是法定的，但至少能說這儀式是不尋常的。

The City of London also has a representative in Parliament, The Remembrancer, whose job it is to protects the City's special rights.

倫敦金融城在議會中同樣有代表，Remembrancer(為該城的諸檢察官之一，及節(jié)儀主管)，他的職務(wù)是保護(hù)倫敦金融城的特殊權(quán)力。

Because of this, laws passed by Parliament sometimes don't apply to the City of London: most notably voting reform laws, which we'll discuss next time. But if you're curious for a preview, unlike anywhere else in the UK, elections in the City of London involve Medieval Guilds and modern companies.

因此，議會通過的法律有時并不適用于倫敦金融城：特別是選舉改革法，這我們下次會討論。但如果你很好奇想先來個預(yù)告，不像聯(lián)合王國的其他任何地方，倫敦金融城的選舉涉及了中世紀(jì)的同業(yè)公會以及現(xiàn)代的公司。

Finally, the City of London also owns and operates land and buildings far outside its border, making it quite wealthy. Once you start looking for The City's Crest, you'll find it in lots of unexpected places, most notably on Tower Bridge, which while being in London is operated by the City of London. These crests everywhere when combined with the City of London's age and wealth and quasi-independent status make it an irresistible temptation for conspiracy nuts.

最后，倫敦金融城在邊界外遠(yuǎn)處也擁有并管理土地及建筑，讓它十分富裕。一旦你開始尋找倫敦金融城的徽飾，你會在許多意料之外的地方發(fā)現(xiàn)它，尤其是在Tower Bridge(倫敦塔橋)，雖然位于倫敦卻是由倫敦金融城運作。當(dāng)這些隨處可見的徽飾結(jié)合倫敦金融城的年齡、財富，以及半獨立的狀態(tài)，讓它成為陰謀者無法抵抗的誘惑。

Add in the oldest Masonic temple, and it's not long before the crazy part of the Internet yelling about secret societies controlling the world via the finance industry from inside the City-state of London. And don't forget the Reptilian Alien Queen who's really behind it all.

把最古老的共濟(jì)會教堂算在內(nèi)，不久之前網(wǎng)路還瘋狂地喊著有關(guān)神祕的社團(tuán)在倫敦城邦內(nèi)部，透過金融業(yè)控制世界。別忘了那爬蟲類外星女王，她才真的是幕后主使。

But conspiracy theories aside, the City of London is not an independent nation like the Vatican is, no matter how much you might read it on the Internet, rather it's a unique place in the United Kingdom with a long and very complicated history.

但撇開陰謀論，倫敦金融城不像梵蒂岡是個獨立的國家，不論你在網(wǎng)路上可能讀到它多少東西，更切確的說，它只是在聯(lián)合王國中一個有非常悠久且復(fù)雜歷史的獨特地方。

The wall that began all this two thousand years ago is now mostly gone, so the border between London and its secret inner city isn't so obvious. Though, next time you're in London, if you come across a small dragon on the street, he still guards the entrance to the city in a city in a country in a country.

兩千年前引起這全部事情的城墻現(xiàn)在大部分都消失了，所以倫敦和它的神秘內(nèi)城間的邊界不再那么明顯。雖然如此，但下次你到倫敦來的時候，如果你在街上看到一只小龍，他仍然在守衛(wèi)這個城中之城，國中之國的入口。