英国卫报:小冰块下的大生意(4)（在线收听）

Nevertheless, his discovery set in motion the birth of the second ice trade - and the death of the first.

然而，他的发现引发了第二次冰贸易的诞生，也导致了第一次冰贸易的死亡。

In 19th-century America (and, to a lesser extent, Britain), ice had been a nation-shaping industry,

在19世纪的美国(英国在较小的程度上也是如此)，冰曾是一个能够影响国家发展的产业。

as the widespread extraction of abundant naturally occurring ice had allowed fresh produce to travel further and stay fresh longer, significantly improving diets in the global north.

因为大量的天然冰块被大规模开采，使得新鲜农产品的保鲜时间更长，可以卖到更远的地区，大大改善了北半球人们的饮食。

For years, natural ice was the US's second-biggest crop by weight to be transported by trains and ships (the first, speaking of nation-shaping commodities, was cotton).

多年来，按重量计算的话，天然冰是美国用火车和轮船运输的第二大作物(说到塑造国家的商品，第一是棉花)。

But within a couple of generations, a string of innovations pushed the original ice trade into obsolescence.

但在几代人之后，一系列的创新将最初的冰贸易推向了没落。

First, following Gorrie's prototype, there was the emergence of "machine", or artificially made ice, which gradually supplanted the natural ice trade.

首先，在戈里的原型之后出现了“机器”，即人造冰，逐渐取代了天然冰贸易。

Next came a number of inventions that transformed how ice was used within the home, such as the fridge-freezer and the first packaged ice.

接下来的一些发明改变了家庭使用冰的方式，如冰箱和第一批包装冰。

In the early 20th century in North America, the iceman had been as much a neighbourhood fixture as the postman or paperboy;

在20世纪初的北美，冰人就像邮递员或报童一样是邻里之间的常客。

by the 1970s, all that remained of a once-mighty trade was a patchwork of scattered regional packaged ice suppliers attempting to find scant space in the nation's freezer compartments.

等到了20世纪70年代，一度繁荣的冰贸易只剩下零星的区域性包装冰供应商，试图在全国的冷冻库中找到有限的发展空间。

When Alan Marr, Joseph Marr's great-grandson, visited Canada in 1978, his family business was approaching meltdown.

1978年，约瑟夫·马尔的曾孙艾伦·马尔访问加拿大时，他的家族企业正濒临崩溃。

Back at home, freezer trawlers - fishing boats capable of making their own ice on board - were becoming more widespread,

在美国国内，能够自己制冰的冷冻拖网渔船正变得越来越普遍，

meaning that The Ice Co's onshore ice-manufacturing facilities risked becoming totally obsolete.

这意味着ice Co公司的陆上制冰设施可能会被彻底淘汰。

But in the new world, Alan saw a new opportunity. He was astonished to see that - in the words of his granddaughter, Polly Metcalfe,

但在新世界，艾伦看到了一个新的机会。他惊讶地发现--用他的孙女、

The Ice Co's current managing director - "in every single bar and restaurant he went into, they ram-packed the glass full of ice".

Ice Co现任董事总经理波莉·梅特卡夫的话来说就是--“在他走进的每一家酒吧和餐厅，他们都在杯子里装满了冰块”。

It wasn't a huge leap to assume that if people wanted ice in their drinks in Canada (hardly the warmest country in the world), they might want ice in their drinks in the UK, too.

如果加拿大(并不是世界上最温暖的国家)的人们想在饮料里加冰，那么英国人可能也想在饮料里加冰。

Back on home soil, he imported a Vogt ice machine from the US - which cools water in a tubular system,

回到家乡后，他从美国进口了一台Vogt制冰机--用管状系统冷却水，

resulting in the cylindrical cubes so familiar to packaged ice users today - and got to work making ice for an entirely new market.

产生了如今包装冰用户所熟悉的圆柱形立方体--并开始为一个全新的市场制造冰。

Except, at first, there didn't seem to be much of a market.

不过，一开始市场似乎并不大。

It was not until a transformative deal with the US air force base in East Anglia (three truckloads, a huge amount at the time) that it looked like this new venture would make any kind of commercial sense.

直到他们与东安格利亚的美国空军基地达成了一场变革性的交易(3辆卡车的货物，在当时是一笔巨大的金额)，这个新的冒险项目看起来才有了某种商业意义。

By 1987, there was enough demand for this strange new product for Charles Marr (Alan's son) to launch one of the first packaged ice products to hit the British market,

到了1987年，这种奇怪的新产品已经有了足够的需求，以至于查尔斯·马尔(艾伦的儿子)推出了首批进入英国市场的包装冰产品之一，

choosing the shrewdly egalitarian name Party Ice for a product that would dutifully do its job regardless of whether it was chilling a bottle of champagne or a glass of Coke.

并为这一产品选了一个恰如其分的名字“派对冰”，无论是冰镇一瓶香槟还是一杯可乐，它都能尽职尽责。