来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2022年2月27日
During its 300 or so years in Britain, tea has made the transition from the exotic to the ordinary. Initially arriving as a Chinese mild stimulant, by the 1860s it was so prevalent that it could be written that “the great Anglo-Saxon race are essentially a tea-drinking people”. The national drink had a dark history: the taste for sugary tea fuelled the British empire; it underpinned the slave trade; and led to the Opium wars. But an academic paper last month found that the cuppa was much more central to England’s own development than previously understood.
在茶叶到达英国的大约300年历史中，已经从舶来品变成了普通品。它最初是作为一种来自中国的温和兴奋剂出现的，到19世纪60年代，它变得如此流行，以至于可以这样写：“伟大的盎格鲁-撒克逊民族基本上是一个喝茶的民族”。这个国民饮料有着一段黑暗的历史：对含糖茶的喜爱推动了大英帝国的发展；它支撑了奴隶贸易；并导致了鸦片战争。但上个月的一篇学术论文发现，茶在英国自身发展中所起的作用远比人们之前所认为的重要。
Historians like to ask why the Industrial Revolution took place here in the 18th century and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia. Answers have ranged from religion to culture to politics. Several historians argue that sugar played a critical role in fuelling workers. Could it be that sweet, boiled water infused with a mildly addictive plant produced a healthier as well as more energetic population just when England needed labour? That appears to be the case put forward by Francisca Antman, an economist at the University of Colorado.
历史学家喜欢问，为什么18世纪的工业革命发生在英国，而不是欧洲的其他地方或亚洲。答案包括从宗教到文化再到政治。一些历史学家认为，糖在为工人提供能量方面发挥了关键作用。当英国需要劳动力的时候，会不会是这样一种甜的、煮沸的水，再注入一种温和的令人上瘾的植物，就让人们变得更健康、更有活力？这似乎就是科罗拉多大学经济学家弗朗西斯科·安特曼提出的根据。
It is not a new thesis in academic circles, but Prof Antman provides the first quantitative evidence that tea drinking powered the Industrial Revolution, by increasing the health of workers. Her study reveals that the practice of boiling water for tea lowered mortality rates by 25% in lower water-quality areas.
这在学术界并不是什么新论题，但安特曼教授提供了第一个定量证据，证明饮茶增进了工人的健康，进而推动了工业革命。她的研究表明，在水质较低的地区，用沸水泡茶可以降低25%的死亡率。
This “accidental improvement” in public health, she argues, occurred just as people were moving into cities, where the crowding together would otherwise have unleashed devastating epidemics. Instead, the country possessed a healthy pool of labour needed for industrialisation. The country’s population tripled in roughly a century after 1750, creating a bigger domestic market for goods and amplifying the impact of the technological revolution.
她认为，这种公共卫生方面的“意外改善”刚好发生在人们迁入城市的时候，否则拥挤在一起会引发毁灭性的流行病。相反，英国拥有工业化所需的健康劳动力储备。1750年之后的一个世纪里，英国的人口增长了两倍，为商品创造了更大的国内市场，也放大了技术革命的影响。
One of the key moments that shifted tea from a luxury enjoyed by the elite to a mass market drink came, the Antman paper argues, in 1784 when the tea tax was cut from 119% to 12.5% at one stroke. By the end of the century, even the humblest peasant drank tea twice a day. Tea’s distinct properties helped it become the nation’s favourite. Only a few leaves were needed to make a decent pot and leaves can be reused, thus decoupling the link between income and consumption. The worker’s tea break made the drink a cultural custom.
安特曼的论文认为，茶从精英阶层享用的奢侈品转变为大众市场饮品的关键时刻之一出现在1784年，当时茶叶税一下子从119%降至12.5%。到18世纪末，即使是最卑微的农民一天也要喝两次茶。茶叶独特的特性使其成为全英国人民的最爱。冲制一壶像样的茶水只需要几片叶子，而且茶叶可以重复冲沏，这样收入和消费之间的联系就会脱钩。工人们的茶歇时间使这种饮品成为一种文化习俗。
Thus the paradox, Prof Antman argues, “of why England experienced a decline in mortality rates over this period without an increase in wages, living standards, or nutrition can be explained in part by the widespread adoption of tea as the national beverage and the proportionally increased consumption of boiled water”.
因此，安特曼教授认为，“在工资、生活水平或营养水平没有提高的情况下，英国的死亡率在这一时期出现了下降，这一悖论可以部分解释为，茶被广泛采用为国民饮料，而白开水的消费量也相应增加”。