美国商业大亨传奇 第24期:复仇者的崛起(7)

Unsure how to prevent a complete collapse,
由于不知道怎样避免一场彻底的垮台，
the stock exchange shuts down
股票交易一度停滞，
and stays closed for ten straight days.
并且持续了十天。
The Panic of 1873 triggered
1873年的“大恐慌”
the first full-blown national depression,
导致了第一次全国性的经济大萧条，
and nobody quite knew what to do about it.
没人清楚应该做什么。
For the first time,
第一次，
large--very large--numbers of American workers were without jobs.
有相当大数量的美国工人失业。
Workers got laid off,
工人被解雇，
but the owners,they still lived in the style that they were accustomed to.
但是资本家依然以他们惯有的生活方式活着。
But no one was shedding any tears for John D. Rockefeller.
没有人为约翰·D·洛克菲勒哭泣。
People were saving their tears for themselves,
人们都把眼泪都留给了自己，
when they found themselves out of work,
当他们没有了工作，
out of their homes, out of food, out of hope.
没有了居所，没有了食物，没有了希望。
While many of the biggest companies
就在国内很多巨头
in the country struggle to survive,
为了活下去而挣扎的时候，
Rockefeller sees opportunity,
洛克菲勒捕捉到了机会，
his belief in the survival of the fittest kicking in.
他相信适者生存。
As his competition collapses,
在竞争对手垮台之后，
Rockefeller picks them off,
洛克菲勒出动，
buying out bankrupt oil companies for next to nothing.
几乎零成本就买下了破产的石油公司。
I find that I do better in bad markets.
我发现我在市场萧条时更有干劲。
I buy things in bad markets.
经济萧条时我去收购，
And, you can't do that in a great economy.
在市场繁荣时这是是不可能的。
You can't buy it.
你不能买，
Either you're gonna buy it very expensively
或者是付出高昂的价格去买，
or not be able to buy it at all.
或者根本买不起。
So there's a lot of opportunity, I find, in the bad times.
在萧条的时候，我发现我能得到很多机会。
By the time the depression is through,
萧条期过后，
Rockefeller has created the largest corporate empire in America.
洛克菲勒打造了全美最大的垄断企业。
He was playing the game of industry,
他在产业里博弈，
and he was simply better at it than everybody else.
他不比任何人逊色。
He saw the industrial marketplace
他把行业市场
as a place for the survival of the fittest,
看成是适者生存的场所，
and he was fitter than anybody else,
同时他比别人更适应，
therefore he survived.
所以他幸存下来。
Not only that, therefore he deserved to survive,
不仅如此，因此他的幸存是他应得的，
and they didn't.
他的竞争对手们并非如此。