韋恩食記

In the United States, railroads spearheaded the second phase of the transportation revolution by overtaking the previous importance of canals.
在美國，鐵路超越了運河先前的重要性，引領著交通運輸革命第二階段的發展。
The mid-1800s saw a great expansion of American railroads.
19世界中期見證了美國鐵路的大擴張。
The major cities east of the Mississippi River were linked by a spiderweb of railroad tracks.
密西西比河以東的主要城市透過像蜘蛛網般的鐵軌所相連。
☐ Chicago's growth illustrates the impact of these rail links.
芝加哥的發展描述了這些鐵路帶來的影響。
☐ In 1849 Chicago was a village of a few hundred people with virtually no rail service.
在1849年，芝加哥是一個只有幾百人居住的小村莊，幾乎沒有鐵路服務。
☐ By 1860 it had become a city of 100,000, served by eleven railroads.
到了1860年，這裡已經發展為擁有11條鐵路的10萬人口的城市。
☐ Farmers to the north and west of Chicago no longer had to ship their grain, livestock, and dairy products down the Mississippi River to New Orleans; they could now ship their products directly east.
芝加哥北部和西部的農民不再需要用船裝載他們的穀物、牲畜和乳製品，沿著密西西比河向下運送到紐奧良，他們現在可以直接將他們的產品送到東部。
Chicago supplanted New Orleans as the interior of America's main commercial hub.
芝加哥取代紐奧良成為了美國內陸的主要商業中心。

The east-west rail lines stimulated the settlement and agricultural development of the Midwest.
東西向的鐵路促進了中西部地區的移民和農業發展。
By 1860 Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin had replaced Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York as the leading wheat-growing states.
到了1860年，伊利諾伊州、印第安納州和威斯康星州已取代俄亥俄州、賓夕法尼亞州和紐約成為主要的小麥種植州。
Enabling farmers to speed their products to the East, railroads increased the value of farmland and promoted additional settlement.
鐵路使農民加快他們的產品運送到東部的速度，並提升了農地的價值及促進了更多的定居點。
In turn, population growth in agricultural areas triggered industrial development in cities such as Chicago, Davenport (Iowa), and Minneapolis, for the new settlers needed lumber for fences and houses and mills to grind wheat into flour.
反過來看，農業地區的人口增長促進了芝加哥、達文波特（愛荷華州）、明尼阿波利斯等城市的發展，這是因為新移民需要木材來建造柵欄和房屋以及需要用磨坊來將小麥磨成麵粉。

Railroads also propelled the growth of small towns along their routes.
鐵路也推動了沿線小城鎮的發展。
The Illinois Central Railroad, which had more track than any other railroad in 1855, made money not only from its traffic but also from real estate speculation.
1855年，伊利諾斯州中央鐵路公司擁有比其他鐵路更多的軌道，不僅從交通運輸中賺錢，還從房地產投資中獲利。
Purchasing land for stations along its path, the Illinois Central then laid out towns around the stations.
伊利諾斯州中央鐵路公司沿著鐵軌購買土地來建造車站，接著就在周圍建造城鎮。
The selection of Manteno, Illinois, as a stop of the Illinois Central, for example, transformed the site from a crossroads without a single house in 1854 into a bustling town of nearly a thousand in 1860, replete with hotels, lumberyards, grain elevators, and gristmills.
例如，伊利諾斯州中央鐵路公司選擇曼特諾作為伊利諾斯州中部的站點，使這個地方從1854年的一個杳無人煙的交叉路口轉變成1860年有將近1000人的繁華城鎮，飯店、伐木場、穀物升降機和磨坊到處可見。
By the Civil War (1861–1865), few thought of the railroad-linked Midwest as a frontier region or viewed its inhabitants as pioneers.
到了南北內戰期間(1861-1865)，幾乎沒人將鐵路貫穿的中西部看作是邊疆地區或是將那裡的居民看成是括荒者。

As the nation's first big business, the railroads transformed the conduct of business.
作為全國第一大產業，鐵路改變了企業的經營方式。
During the early 1830s, railroads, like canals, depended on financial aid from state governments.
在1830年代早期，鐵路就像運河一樣，依靠州政府的財政支持才能發展。
With the onset of economic depression in the late 1830s, however, state governments scrapped overly ambitious railroad projects.
然而，在1830年代晚期，經濟大蕭條的開始使得州政府取消了規模過於龐大的鐵路建設項目。
Convinced that railroads burdened them with high taxes and blasted hopes, voters turned against state aid, and in the early 1840s, several states amended their constitutions to bar state funding for railroads and canals.
選民們深信鐵路讓他們背負重稅，這使他們失去希望，轉而反對州政府對鐵路建設提供財政援助，在1840年代早期，幾個州修改他們的憲法，禁止為鐵路和運河提供資金。
The federal government took up some of the slack, but federal aid did not provide a major stimulus to railroads before 1860.
聯邦政府彌補了部分的資金缺口，但此援助無法刺激1860年以前的鐵路發展。
Rather, part of the burden of finance passed to city and county governments in agricultural areas that wanted to attract railroads.
相反地，部分的財政負擔轉移到希望發展鐵路的農業市縣政府上。
Such municipal governments, for example, often gave railroads rights-of-way, grants of land for stations, and public funds.
比如說，這樣的市政府通常會給鐵路公司路權、車站土地使用許可和公共資金。

The dramatic expansion of the railroad network in the 1850s, however, strained the financing capacity of local governments and required a turn toward private investment, which had never been absent from the picture.
然而，1850年鐵路網的急劇擴張，給當地政府政府造成了不小的壓力，因而資金需求轉向了私人投資，而私人投資從來沒放棄過鐵路建設。
Well aware of the economic benefits of railroads, individuals living near them had long purchased railroad stock issued by governments and had directly bought stock in railroads, often paying by contributing their labor to building the railroads.
住在鐵路附近的人很清楚鐵路的經濟效益，他們長期購買政府發行的鐵路股票，並直接從鐵路公司購買股票，通常透過餐與鐵路建設來支付股票費用。
But the large railroads of the 1850s needed more capital than such small investors could generate.
但是1850年代的大型鐵路需要的資本比這些小投資者所能提供的還要多。
Gradually, the center of railroad financing shifted to New York City, and in fact, it was the railroad boom of the 1850s that helped make Wall Street in New York City the nation's greatest capital market.
漸漸地，鐵路融資中心轉移到了紐約，事實上，紐約華爾街之所以可以誠為最大的資本市場是因為鐵路的蓬勃發展。
The stocks of all the leading railroads were traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the 1850s.
1850年代所有主要鐵路的股票都在紐約證券交易所進行。
In addition, the growth of railroads turned New York City into the center of modern investment firms.
此外，鐵路的發展史紐約成為了現在投資公司的中心。
The investment firms evaluated the stock of railroads in the smaller American cities and then found purchasers for these stocks in New York City, Philadelphia, Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Hamburg.
這些投資公司評估了美國規模較小城市的鐵路股票，然後在紐約、費城、巴黎、倫敦、阿姆斯特丹和漢堡尋找這些股票的購買者。
Controlling the flow of funds to railroads, the investment bankers began to exert influence over the railroads' internal affairs by supervising administrative reorganizations in times of trouble.
為了控制資金流向鐵路，投資銀行家們開始在困難時期透過監督行政重組的方式對鐵路公司的內部事務施加影響。