英文自修48： 摆脱金本位，是福是祸？

王宥轩（译）

As everyone knows, this year marks the centenary of the start of the First World War. What is less noted is another anniversary: 1914 was the year when Germany began the world’s slow disengagement from the gold standard.

众所周知，今年是一战爆发的一百周年。而（相对）少有人知的是另一个纪念日：正是在1914年，全球脱离金本位制的缓慢进程从德国开始了。

Much less interesting, I hear you say; and of course you are right. But the First World War ended, while the postgold-standard economy still rules our lives. The supply of money, no longer stifled by a fixed exchange rate with gold, can be anything our governments and the bankers wish it to be.

你可能会说，这不太吸引人；当然你是对的。但一战结束了，而后金本位制的经济还在统治着我们的生活。金钱的供给不再受固定的黄金兑换比率制约，而是由政府和银行家们决定。

Whether this is to blame for the recent economic tempests is a question that is beyond me. My point is rather different. Once money was measured in gold and silver coins, sanctioned by religion and natural scarcity. By leaving that behind, we are holding our wealth in a strange environment where money is only what we trust it to be.

这（非金本位制）是不是最近经济波动的罪魁祸首，我不知道。我的观点与此不同。金钱一度用金币和银币来衡量，由宗教和自然稀缺提供支持。撇开这点不说，在怪异的经济环境中，我们持有的财富仅仅建立在我们对它的信任之上。

In a way it’s impressive that mutual human trust allows us to hold our life savings in pieces of paper.

一方面，人们之间的相互信任使我们能够以纸币的形式持有生活积蓄，这是不可思议的。

But how far can the process be pushed, given what we know of human nature? Take, for instance, the strange world of bitcoins. For the past five years this entirely virtual currency has prospered mightily in cyberspace, and is now worth nearly ten billion pounds. No national bank controls it: bitcoins are created regularly by the software itself, and transactions are made secure by a system of passwords and secret keys.

但是，鉴于人的本性，这样的程序能走多远？举例来说，比如比特币的奇异世界。在过去五年中，这一完全虚拟的货币在网络中迅速繁荣，现在价值近一百亿英镑。它不受任何国家银行控制：比特币由软件自身定期制造，其交易安全由一个密码和密钥系统保障。

So a bitcoin is not a coin: its value isentirely based on what it is believed to be worth. And that belief is volatile不稳定的.Yesterday the failed Mount Gox 门头沟（世界上最大的比特币交易商） bitcoin exchange, which capsized （使船）翻；倾覆along with seven percent of the world’s bitcoins, restarted its website. Userscan look into their bitcoin wallets to check their balances, but, tantalizingly, they can withdraw nothing. Is their money real, or is it not?

因此比特币不是一种货币：它的价值完全基于人们相信它是有价值的。而这种信任是不稳定的。昨日门头沟比特币重启了网页，其交易的失败，倾覆了全球比特币的7%。用户们可以浏览自己的比特币钱包来查询余额，但他们再着急也不能撤回任何东西。他们的钱是真的，还是假的呢？

It’s fascinating to read thequasi-theological 类似理论；准理论 language of some bitcoin discussion groups. Here is a new religion, it seems. It has its rituals, or protocols. Its founder has mysteriously disappeared. Its software is unseen yet powerful; and its will is inscrutable不可理解，谜一样的,as shown in the sudden falls and spikes in the bitcoin price. It will free us from the ever-unpopular banks. As one blogger writes: it is a revolutionary religion that will save the world.

一些比特币讨论组使用的类似理论的语言是很有意思的，这里看起来就像是一种新的宗教。它有自己的仪式或条款。它的建立者神秘消失了。它的软件我们看不到，却很强大；而它的意图像谜一样，我们只看到比特币的价格忽跌忽涨。它使我们能够摆脱日益不受欢迎的银行。正如某一博客中写的：它是革命性的宗教，将拯救世界。

Perhaps when we lose confidence in traditional religion, as many did after the Great War, we instinctively look for surrogates替代；代理. The web has become a kind of mystical, metaphysical space. But should we place our trust in it? The prophets of old warned us that not all idols look like statues. It is wiser to trust God, says the Qur’an 可兰经, than to trust the works of our own cleverness.

或许当我们对传统宗教失去信心时，就像许多人在一战中那样，我们会自觉地寻找替代品。网络成了一种神秘的、形而上的空间。但我们应该把信任交给网络吗？古老的先知警告过我们，不是所有的偶像都是雕像。信仰上帝更为明智，可兰经说，而不是相信我们自己的小聪明。