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史上第一个超级富豪(3)

来源:可可英语 编辑:Vicki   可可英语APP下载 |  可可官方微信:ikekenet

Pierpont dealt with the loss of his love by throwing himself back into his work.

皮尔庞特处理失恋的方式是重新投入工作。

He returned to New York, where he had already made quite the name for himself as a financier.

他回到纽约,在那里他已经成为了一名颇有名气的金融家。

In 1860, Pierpont had broken away from Duncan, Sherman & Company, where he had clerked for two years, and begun representing his father's firm in America via his own, eponymous firm: J.Pierpont Morgan & Company.

1860年,皮尔庞特脱离邓肯谢尔曼公司,开始通过自己的同名公司“皮尔庞特摩根公司”在美国代理父亲的公司。

The biggest splash he was attached to was something of a scandal.

皮尔庞特引起最大轰动的是一桩丑闻。

After his engagement to Memie, but before their marriage and Mediterranean retreat, Pierpont had helped finance a nasty bit of war profiteering, which became known as the Hall Carbine Affair.

在他和梅梅订婚后但在他们结婚和在地中海隐居之前,皮尔庞特资助了一笔肮脏的战争暴利,也就是著名的霍尔卡宾枪事件。

The affair sees a lot of money and a lot of guns change hands, and can be a bit confusing, but the simplified version goes something like this.

这一事件涉及大量金钱和枪支的易手,可能会让人感到困惑,但简化版的情节大致是这样的。

Morgan was part of a small consortium called the Union Defense League, alongside two gentlemen named Simon Stevens and Arthur Eastman.

摩根和西蒙·斯蒂文斯、亚瑟·伊士曼两名绅士一起加入了一个名为联合防御联盟的小财团。

Eastman bought 5,000 surplus Hall Carbine rifles from the US Government, which were considered antiquated and too old for use because of their age and the caliber of their rifling.

伊士曼从美国政府那里购买了5000支过剩的霍尔卡宾枪,这些枪由于使用年限和口径的原因被认为是过时的,太旧而不能使用。

Eastman bought the rifles for $3 dollars and fifty cents a pop, financed by Morgan's money, in August of 1861.

1861年8月,伊士曼以每支3美元50美分的价格买下了这些步枪,资金来自摩根。

The rifles were almost immediately sold back to Major General John Fremont and the US government at more than 600 percent of their original cost -- $22 a rifle.

这些来复枪几乎立即被卖回给少将约翰·弗里蒙特和美国政府,价格是原价的600%——22美元一支。

The sale was made under the assumption that the rifling had been adjusted to government standard .58 caliber.

这笔交易是在假定来复枪已被调整为政府标准口径58口径的前提下进行的。

The parties exchanged guns and money, but the Morgan consortium hadn't held up their end of the bargain.

双方交换了枪支和金钱,但摩根财团并没有履行他们的承诺。

The rear breeching chambers, where infantry would load .58 caliber ammunition into the back of the weapon, had been adequately adjusted; however, the actual rifling of the weapons remained incompatibly sized.

后膛(步兵可以把58口径的弹药装进武器的后部)已经进行了适当的调整,然而武器的实际膛线尺寸仍然不匹配。

Over the course of the civil war, many infantrymen blamed these old, defective Hall Carbines for terrible misfires and accidents, many of which led to self-inflicted injuries and potentially preventable amputations.

内战期间许多步兵将严重失火和事故归咎于这些陈旧的、有缺陷的霍尔卡宾枪,其中许多事故导致了自残和或许可以避免的截肢。

Almost immediately, there was a US Congressional investigation.

美国国会几乎立即展开了调查。

Major General Fremont, who purchased the guns, had a boss, and that guy complained to his boss, who complained to the Secretary of War, and the next thing you know, the Hall Carbine Affair was born.

弗里蒙特少将(即买枪的人)有个老板,那个人向他的老板抱怨,他的老板又向战争部长抱怨,然后你知道,霍尔卡宾枪事件就发生了。

The criticism was blistering; newspapers ran dramatic, muckraking headlines.

批评是激烈的,报纸上刊登了引人注目的揭发丑闻的标题。

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At one point, the Congressional Committee on Government Contracts issued a statement, proclaiming,

国会政府合同委员会一度发表了一份声明,称

"Worse than traitors in arms are the men who are pretend loyalty to the flag, feast and fatten on the misfortunes of the nation, while patriot blood is crimsoning the plains of the South, and bodies of their countrymen are moldering in the dust."

“(他们)比武装中的卖国贼更坏,是那些假装忠于国旗,以国家的不幸为食,养肥自己的人,而爱国者的鲜血染红了南方的平原,他们同胞的尸体在尘土中腐烂。”

Much of this criticism was refuted, years later, by E.Gordon Wasson's 1940s investigation, The Hall Carbine Affair: A Study in Contemporary Folklore.

多年后,这些批评被E·戈登·沃森在20世纪40年代所作的调查《卡宾枪事件:当代民俗学研究》所驳斥。

What isn't refutable is that Morgan had made a small fortune off the deal.

不可否认的是,摩根从这笔交易中赚了一笔小钱。

This new injection of capital financed several of the projects he busied himself with, following the death of Memie.

梅梅去世后,这笔新的资金为他正在操作的几个项目提供了资金。

Pierpont went full-throttle for his father's company until 1864; it was then that George Peabody, his father's old partner, decided to retire.

直到1864年,皮尔庞特都在全力经营他父亲的公司,就在那时,他父亲的老合伙人乔治·皮博迪决定退休。

Perhaps to avoid confusion between two similarly sounding firms, Pierpont took an opportunity to partner with the more senior Charles H.Dabney, whom he knew from his European jaunts, to reform his own house as Dabney, Morgan & Co.

也许是为了避免混淆两个听起来相似的公司,皮尔庞特找了个机会与他在欧洲旅行中认识的资深的查尔斯·H.达布尼合作,将自己的公司更名成达布尼摩根公司。

Now, with all these banking firms, forming and reforming, you might be wondering just what it is that Pierpont actually did. It's a fair question.

现在,随着银行的形成和改革,你可能想知道皮尔庞特到底做了什么。这个问题很好。

Much of what he did was act as an American agent for his London-based father, but he did a fair amount of investment on his own, too.

他所做的大部分工作是为他在伦敦的父亲担任美国代理人,不过他自己也做了相当多的投资。

Early on, he traded mostly in government bonds and foreign exchange, but as the 1860s went on, he began leveraging his international contacts to connect old European money with new American industrialists.

早期他主要从事政府债券和外汇交易,但随着19世纪60年代的发展,他开始利用自己的国际关系将旧的欧洲资金与新的美国实业家联系起来。

So, as the Civil War concluded, and American Reconstruction gave way to industrialization and the Gilded Age, no one on Earth became more adept at linking railroad barons and aspiring inventors with deep reservoirs of investment capital.

因此,随着南北战争的结束,美国重建让位于工业化和镀金时代,地球上没有人比他更善于将铁路大亨和有抱负的发明家与深厚的投资资本储备联系起来。

Early in his career, Pierpont was often a mere facilitator, connecting financiers and visionaries for a small cut of the profits.

在职业生涯的早期,皮尔庞特通常只是一个促进者,为一小部分利润联系金融家和梦想家。

But as the century wore on, Morgan amassed a larger and larger fortune, and became wealthy enough – and powerful enough – to finance many of these projects on his own.

但随着时间的推移,摩根积累了越来越多的财富,变得足够富有,也足够强大,他独自资助了许多这样的项目。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
dramatic [drə'mætik]

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adj. 戏剧性的,引人注目的,给人深刻印象的

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industrialization [in.dʌstriəlai'zeiʃən]

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n. 工业化

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defective [di'fektiv]

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adj. 有缺陷的,不完全变化的(动词) n. 有缺陷的

 
senior ['si:njə]

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adj. 年长的,高级的,资深的,地位较高的

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antiquated ['æntikweitid]

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adj. 陈旧的,过时的,年老的 动词antiquate

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confusing [kən'fju:ziŋ]

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adj. 使人困惑的,令人费解的 动词confuse的现

 
flag [flæg]

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n. 旗,旗帜,信号旗
vt. (以旗子)标出

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patriot ['peitriət]

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n. 爱国者

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exchange [iks'tʃeindʒ]

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n. 交换,兑换,交易所
v. 交换,兑换,交

 
assumption [ə'sʌmpʃən]

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n. 假定,设想,担任(职责等), 假装

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