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If there was one thing 18th-century British gentlemen thought they knew more about than Port or racehorses, it was liberty.
十八世纪的英国绅士们自恃比波特酒和赛马了解更多的，莫过于自由。
They basked in it. It was the reward, they told themselves, for nearly a century of civil wars.
他们醉心于此。他们将其视为百年内战的战利品。
It helped make Britain the freest country in the world, safe from Catholic tyranny, absolute monarchs and standing armies.
正是内战使英国成为最自由的国度，远离宗教迫害，君主专制，以及强制兵役。
Liberty was their religion. They built temples in their gardens devoted to it. They even wrote it a hymn.
自由便是他们的信仰。人们在花园中建造庙宇弘扬它。甚至将它写进颂歌。
Pity the rest of the enslaved world, deprived of its manifold blessings!
很遗憾其余的世界仍深陷奴役的枷锁，被剥夺了本应享有的各种幸福！
But the real payoff of liberty had been riches and power from around the globe.
而自由带来的真正甜头是引领世界的财富和权势。
With liberty had come trade. Trade had wrought perhaps the most staggering transformation of national power in all British history.
贸易紧随自由前来。也许正是贸易赋予了英国史无前例的权力巅峰。
From being a tiny outcrop of insignificant islands off the north-west coast of Europe, Britain had expanded into a global power.
原本只是位于欧洲西北一隅毫不起眼的岛国，最终发展成了世界强国。
The shadow of Britannia now fell across America, the Caribbean, the Indian Subcontinent. It had taken barely a century.
大不列颠的影响如今遍布美洲、加勒比海、印度次大陆。一切都只花了一个世纪。
And, unlike the Roman Empire they so admired, they dreamt of a British Empire that would endure. One based on trade, not on conquest.
不同于深受敬仰的罗马帝国，英国人梦想建立一个不朽的大英帝国。以贸易为纽带，而不单是征服。
It would be an empire of liberty, they thought, Britain writ large, sharing its bounty with the world.
这将是一个以自由著称的帝国，英国将慷慨地与世界分享她的馈赠。
So, how was it that in just over a century, the people that thought of themselves as the freest on earth ended up subjugating much of the world's population?
所以，在短短一百多年中，一个标榜自由的民族怎会逐渐将大半个世界征服于脚下？
How was it that a nation which had such mistrust of military power ended up the biggest military power of all?
而一个对军权怀有深深戒意的国家怎会最终坐拥最强的军事霸权？
How was it that the empire of the free turned into the empire of slaves?
一个称颂自由的国度又怎么会演变成奴役的帝国？
How was it that profit seemed to turn not on freedom, but on raw coercion?
而利益也似乎并不来源于自由，恰恰来自高压统治？
How was it that we ended up with the wrong empire?
帝国又是如何逐步走进歧路的？
