“血色黑金”史：人类与石油的故事 | 书评

The soaring demand for oil was driven mainly by its use for lighting (after being refined into kerosene). It burned cleaner, brighter and with less smell than other oils, such as those derived from coal or whales. The oil rush began in 1859 along what became known as Oil Creek, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, when an entrepreneur called Edwin Drake became the first American to drill for oil successfully. As wildcatters rushed to the region, small refineries started popping up all over the place. Railway companies cashed in by providing the only route to market until pipelines, which required large amounts of capital, could be constructed.
石油需求飙升主要是受照明用途（被提炼成煤油后）推动的。相比从煤或鲸鱼等来源提取的油脂，石油烧起来更清洁、明亮，气味也更小。石油热潮始于1859年宾夕法尼亚州泰特斯维尔（Titusville）附近人称“油溪”的地区，一位名叫埃德温·德雷克（Edwin Drake）的企业家成为首位成功钻探出石油的美国人。随着投机勘探者涌向该地区，小型炼油厂开始随处可见。直至建造起耗资庞大的输油管道之前，铁路公司提供了油品输往市场的唯一路径，从中获利。

Into this Wild East of desperate competition—and prices that fluctuated madly as capacity grew either too fast or too slowly—stepped John D. Rockefeller, whose Standard Oil set out to control the industry through a process of “combination”, or monopolisation. Such was Standard’s financial muscle and legislative clout that competitors sold it their assets before being driven out of business. By controlling pipelines and refineries, Rockefeller could also dictate terms to producers.
在这竞争白热化的“狂野东部”，产能增长不是太快就是太慢，油价疯狂波动，然后约翰·戴维森·洛克菲勒（John D. Rockefeller）登场了。他创立的标准石油公司（Standard Oil）开始通过一系列所谓的“结合”（也就是垄断）控制整个行业。标准石油财力雄厚，还有很强的立法影响力，让竞争对手在被逼出局前把资产都卖给了它。通过控制输油管道和炼油厂，洛克菲勒还可以对生产商发号施令。

Standard’s grip on what was rapidly becoming a global market triggered a response from European colonial powers, which saw the dangers of becoming reliant on imports from America or Russia. With no less violence or ruthlessness than their American counterparts, they set about exploiting existing and newly acquired colonies to correct the imbalance. The British turned to the Indian subcontinent and then to Persia, the Dutch to the East Indies.
标准石油对一个快速实现全球化的市场的掌控引发了欧洲殖民大国的关注，它们察觉到了依赖美国或俄国进口石油的危险。为扭转失衡状态，这些国家开始以不亚于美国的无情暴力开采既有的和新夺取的殖民地上的石油资源。英国人把手伸向印度次大陆以及波斯，荷兰人则转向东印度群岛。

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