Google Is Now the East India Company of the Internet谷歌現在是互聯網的東印度公司

Long ago, another company tried to control global connectivity—it had an unhappy ending

Can you imagine a company so powerful that it controls half of the world’s trade?
你能想像一家公司如此強大，以至於它控制了全球一半的貿易嗎？

It actually happened. But only one time in history. It’s a remarkable story filled with lessons for those willing to learn them.
這確實發生過。但在歷史上只有一次。這是一個非凡的故事，充滿了對那些願意學習的人來說的教訓。

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No business ever matched the power of the East India Company. It dominated global trade routes, and used that power to control entire nations. Yet it eventually collapsed—ruined by the consequences of its own extreme ambitions.
沒有任何商業能與東印度公司相提並論。它主宰了全球貿易路線，並利用這種力量控制整個國家。然而，它最終還是崩潰了——被自身極端野心的後果所摧毀。

Anybody who wants to understand how big businesses destroy themselves through greed and overreaching needs to know this case study. And that’s especially true right now—because huge web platforms are trying to do the exact same thing in the digital economy that the East India Company did in the real world.
任何想要了解大型企業如何因貪婪和過度擴張而自我毀滅的人，都需要了解這個案例研究。這一點在當前尤其真實——因為大型網絡平台正在數字經濟中嘗試做與東印度公司在現實世界中所做的完全相同的事情。

Google is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to the East India Company. And it will encounter the exact same problems, and perhaps meet the same fate.
谷歌是我所見過的最接近東印度公司的事物。它將面臨完全相同的問題，並可能遭遇相同的命運。

The concept is simple. If you control how people connect to the economy, you have enormous power over them.
這個概念很簡單。如果你控制人們如何與經濟連結，你就擁有對他們的巨大權力。

You don’t even need to run factories or set up retail stores. You don’t need to manufacture anything, or create any object with intrinsic value.
你甚至不需要經營工廠或設立零售店。你不需要製造任何東西，或創造任何具有內在價值的物品。

You just control the links between buyers and sellers—and then you squeeze them as hard as you can.
你只需控制買家和賣家之間的聯繫——然後你就盡可能地榨取他們。

That’s why the East India Company focused on trade routes. They were the hyperlinks of that era.
這就是為什麼東印度公司專注於貿易路線。它們是那個時代的超鏈接。

So it needed ships the way Google needs servers.
所以它需要船隻，就像谷歌需要伺服器一樣。

The launch of the massive East India merchant ship, the Edinburgh—which brought tea from China
巨型東印度商船愛丁堡號的啟航——它從中國運來茶葉

The seeds for this rapacious business were planted when the British captured a huge Portuguese ship in 1592. The boat, called the Madre de Deus, was three times larger than anything the Brits had ever built.
這個貪婪商業的種子是在 1592 年英國人捕獲一艘巨大的葡萄牙船隻時播下的。這艘名為「神之母」的船隻，大小是英國人以往建造的任何船隻的三倍。

But it was NOT a military vessel. The Portuguese ship was filled with cargo.
但這並不是一艘軍艦。這艘葡萄牙船裝滿了貨物。

The sailors couldn’t believe what they had captured. They found chests of gold and silver coins, diamond-set jewelry, pearls as big as your thumb, all sorts of silks and tapestries, and 15 tons of ebony.
水手們無法相信他們所捕獲的東西。他們發現了裝滿金銀幣的箱子、鑽石嵌飾的珠寶、像拇指一樣大的珍珠，各種絲綢和掛毯，以及 15 噸的烏木。

The spices alone weighed a staggering 50 tons—cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pepper, and other magical substances rarely seen in British kitchens.
這些香料的重量驚人，達到 50 噸——肉桂、肉豆蔻、丁香、胡椒以及其他在英國廚房中罕見的神奇物質。

This one cargo ship represented as much wealth as half of the entire English treasury.
這艘貨船所代表的財富相當於整個英國國庫的一半。

And it raised an obvious question. Why should the English worry about military ships—or anything else, really—when you could make so much money trading all this stuff?
這引發了一個明顯的問題。為什麼英國人要擔心軍艦——或者說其他任何事情——當你可以通過交易這些東西賺取如此巨額的利潤呢？

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Not long after, a group of merchants and explorers started hatching plans to launch a trading company—and finally received a charter from Queen Elizabeth in 1600.
不久之後，一群商人和探險家開始策劃成立一個貿易公司——並最終在 1600 年獲得了伊莉莎白女王的特許狀。

The East India Company was now a reality, but it needed to play catchup. The Dutch and the Portuguese were already established in the merchant shipping business.
東印度公司現在已經成為現實，但它需要迎頭趕上。荷蘭人和葡萄牙人已經在商業航運業中站穩了腳跟。

By 1603, the East India Company had three ships. A decade later that had grown to eight. But the bigger it got, the more ambitious it became.
到 1603 年，東印度公司擁有三艘船。十年後，這個數字增長到八艘。但隨著規模的擴大，它的野心也越來越大。

The rates of return were enormous—an average of 138% on the first dozen voyages. So the management was obsessed with expanding as rapidly as possible.
回報率驚人——前十二次航行的平均回報率達到 138%。因此，管理層對於盡快擴張變得非常著迷。

They call it scalability nowadays.
他們現在稱之為可擴展性。

But even if they dominated and oppressed like bullies, these corporate bosses still craved a veneer of respectability and legitimacy—just like Google’s CEO at the innauguration yesterday. So the company got a Coat of Arms, playacting as if it were a royal family or noble clan.
但即使他們像霸凌者一樣主導和壓迫，這些企業老闆仍然渴望一層體面和合法的外衣——就像昨天在就職典禮上的谷歌首席執行官一樣。因此，這家公司獲得了一個徽章，假裝自己是一個皇室或貴族家族。

The company also used the motto: Deus Indicat. Deo Ducente Nil Nocet. It translates as “God is our leader. When God leads, nothing can harm.”
公司還使用了座右銘：Deus Indicat. Deo Ducente Nil Nocet。這句話的意思是「上帝是我們的領導者。當上帝引領時，沒有什麼能夠傷害。」

When you consider all the brutal, terrible things this company did, you ‘re dumbfounded that they dared adopt that slogan—much like the “Don’t Be Evil” that once served as Google’s motto.
當你考慮到這家公司所做的所有殘酷和可怕的事情時，你會驚訝於他們竟然敢採用那個口號——就像曾經是谷歌座右銘的「不要作惡」。

But their real god was profit maximization. Of course it was—when your return on investment is so high, you try to grow as fast as possible.
但他們真正的神是利潤最大化。當然是這樣——當你的投資回報率如此之高時，你會盡可能快地增長。

So the East India Company bought new ships. And they bought old ships, too. To accelerate their growth, they even started leasing ships.
因此，東印度公司購買了新船。他們也購買了舊船。為了加速增長，他們甚至開始租賃船隻。

They eventually created their own shipyards—just like web platforms nowadays that decide to make their own hardware. In business, this is called backward integration.
他們最終建立了自己的造船廠——就像現在的網路平台決定製造自己的硬體一樣。在商業中，這被稱為向後整合。

And, also like companies today, it sold shares on the stock exchange to finance these investments.
而且，像今天的公司一樣，它在股票交易所出售股份以為這些投資提供資金。

Soon the East India Company owned a fleet larger than most navies.
不久，東印度公司擁有的艦隊比大多數海軍還要龐大。

There are only two businesses that call their clients users—drug dealers and Internet businesses. The East India Company is a role mode for both.
只有兩種行業稱他們的客戶為用戶——毒販和互聯網企業。東印度公司是兩者的榜樣。

But it’s hard to control the world without getting your hands dirty. Google learned that—and ditched the company’s originating vision of “Don’t Be Evil.”
但要控制世界而不沾染污垢是很難的。谷歌明白了這一點，並放棄了公司最初的願景「不作惡」。

So the East India Company turned into a military force—ready to use violence whenever necessary. Just two years after its founding, the East India Company launched an attack on a Portuguese ship and seized its cargo. This was a faster way to make money than just trading.
因此，東印度公司變成了一支軍事力量——隨時準備在必要時使用暴力。在成立僅兩年後，東印度公司對一艘葡萄牙船發動了攻擊，並奪取了其貨物。這比單純交易更快地賺取金錢。

Let’s be honest, they were now no better than pirates, extracting profits without adding value. In this way, they resemble a search engine that steals news from journalists to sell ads or uses AI knockoffs to take revenues from human creators.
老實說，他們現在和海盜沒有什麼兩樣，榨取利潤卻不增加任何價值。這樣一來，他們就像是一個從記者那裡竊取新聞以賣廣告的搜尋引擎，或是利用人工智慧的仿製品來從人類創作者那裡獲取收入。

But the company’s managers would tell you they didn’t have a choice. If you wanted to control the high seas, you either attacked or got attacked. There was no other option.
但公司的管理者會告訴你，他們沒有選擇。如果你想控制公海，你要麼攻擊，要麼被攻擊。沒有其他選擇。

This always happens, sooner or later, when greed is unrestrained. Fair competition is too slow. You make money faster when you totally destroy all enemies.
這種情況總是會發生，遲早會發生，當貪婪不受限制時。公平競爭太慢了。當你徹底摧毀所有敵人時，你賺錢的速度會更快。

So the East India Company eventually controlled more than a quarter of a million soldiers—at some points it had twice as many combatants under its command as the Royal British Navy.
因此，東印度公司最終控制了超過二十五萬名士兵——在某些時期，它指揮的戰鬥人員數量是英國皇家海軍的兩倍。

It fought wars. It started wars. It ran blockades. It conquered territories, and subjugated the populace. Sometimes it forgot trade entirely, and just imposed taxes on the people it had captured.
它發動了戰爭。它開始了戰爭。它實施了封鎖。它征服了領土，並使人民屈服。有時它完全忘記了貿易，只是對它所捕獲的人民徵收稅款。

Troops of the East India Company (Source
東印度公司的軍隊)

And when you’ve done all that, why worry about other ethical considerations? At an early stage, the company began trading slaves. It continued doing so for the next two hundred years.
當你完成了這一切，為什麼還要擔心其他倫理考量呢？在早期，這家公司開始進行奴隸交易。接下來的兩百年裡，它持續這樣做。

But opium was especially profitable. Like today’s web platforms, the East India Company learned that it could exploit addiction—if the client was hooked, you could squeeze even more cash out of them.
但鴉片尤其有利可圖。就像今天的網絡平台一樣，東印度公司了解到它可以利用上癮——如果客戶上癮了，你就可以從他們身上榨取更多的現金。

I note that there are only two businesses that call their clients users—drug dealers and Internet businesses. The East India Company is a role mode for both.
我注意到只有兩種行業稱他們的客戶為用戶——毒販和互聯網企業。東印度公司是兩者的榜樣。

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But there’s a problem with greed and ambition pushed to such extreme limits. And the East India Company eventually paid a price for its evil ways.
但貪婪和野心推向如此極端的界限會帶來問題。東印度公司最終為其邪惡的行為付出了代價。

The company was hated. Subjugated people fought back. Politicians also grew increasingly alarmed at a business that had more power than the government.
這家公司受到仇恨。被征服的人民反擊。政治家們對一家擁有比政府更大權力的企業也越來越感到擔憂。

So they denounced the company’s corruption and abuses of monopoly power, and imposed restrictions. Constant overreaching also led to financial setbacks and reprisals from a growing number of enemies.
因此，他們譴責該公司的腐敗和濫用壟斷權力，並施加限制。持續的過度擴張也導致了財務上的挫折以及來自日益增多的敵人的報復。

But the simpler explanation is karma is real.
但更簡單的解釋是因果法則是真實的。

Total domination never works in the long run. Just look at all the oppressors of the past—who believed that they had grown so strong, nobody could stop them. They never realize, until it’s too late, that creating so many enemies, day after day, is a bad long term strategy.
完全的統治在長期來看從來都行不通。看看過去所有的壓迫者——他們相信自己變得如此強大，沒有人能阻止他們。他們從未意識到，直到為時已晚，日復一日地創造如此多的敵人是一個糟糕的長期策略。

That’s why they get knifed by their former friends in the Roman Senate. Or get exiled to Elba. Or commit suicide in a Berlin bunker.
這就是為什麼他們會被羅馬參議院的前朋友刺殺，或被流放到厄爾巴島，或在柏林的碉堡中自殺。

Retribution is inevitable. That’s because human beings are not like rats in a maze. If you push them too far, they will go to extreme lengths—even sacrifice their own lives—to get revenge.
報應是不可避免的。這是因為人類並不像迷宮中的老鼠。如果你逼迫他們到極限，他們會不惜一切代價——甚至犧牲自己的生命——來報復。

It took a long time for the opponents of the East India Company to mobilize. But eventually hundreds of millions of people hated them. Even the government officials they had manipulated for so long started to push back—nobody wants to be bullied, and even David finds a way to take down Goliath.
反對東印度公司的勢力動員花了很長時間。但最終，數億人對他們心懷仇恨。甚至那些被他們操控了這麼久的政府官員也開始反擊——沒有人想被欺負，甚至大衛也能找到擊倒歌利亞的方法。

The ultimate irony is that shares of the East India Company still exist today. And an Indian bought them up to gain control.
最具諷刺意味的是，東印度公司的股票至今仍然存在。而一位印度人購買了這些股票以獲得控制權。

This is called getting the last laugh.
這被稱為最後的笑聲。

A comparison with Google is striking. And not just because an Indian-born exec is CEO.
與谷歌的比較令人矚目。不僅僅是因為一位印度出生的高管擔任首席執行官。

Just like a shipping company that controls the port, Google’s search engine is the port of departure for digital voyages today. And like the East India Company, Google decided that it can exploit anybody who uses its port—and destroy them if they want.
就像控制港口的航運公司一樣，谷歌的搜索引擎是今天數位航程的出發港。而且就像東印度公司一樣，谷歌決定可以利用任何使用其港口的人——如果他們想的話，甚至可以摧毀他們。

So Google destroyed the journalism business. That’s why your neighborhood newspaper went broke—the folks in Palo Alto siphoned off all the advertising revenues. And they have killed off thousands of other businesses and jobs.
所以谷歌摧毀了新聞業。這就是為什麼你所在社區的報紙破產——帕洛阿爾托的人們抽走了所有的廣告收入。他們還摧毀了成千上萬的其他企業和工作。

They didn’t need to do this. The same is true of shipping companies—they don’t try to subjugate nations anymore. They learned this lesson from the collapse of the East India Company. Google hasn’t learned its lesson—yet—and so it believes that controlling search gives it the right to dominate anything that is searched for.
他們不需要這樣做。航運公司也是如此——他們不再試圖征服國家。他們從東印度公司的崩潰中學到了這一課。谷歌尚未學到這一課——因此它相信控制搜索就賦予了它主導任何被搜索事物的權利。

I’ve argued elsewhere that AT&T could have done the same thing when it controlled the telephone system. But it didn’t.
我在其他地方曾辯稱，AT&T 在控制電話系統時本可以做同樣的事情。但它沒有。

AT&T operated with a code of ethics that Google abandoned years ago. Otherwise it would have been a parasite on every business that used a phone—demanding a cut of revenues from any transaction conducted via their network.
AT&T 遵循著一套道德準則，而 Google 多年前就已經放棄了這一點。否則，它將成為每個使用電話的企業的寄生蟲——要求從通過其網絡進行的任何交易中抽取一部分收入。

Google is shameless. If you pay them money, people can find your business. If you stop paying them money, you disappear from view. They want every business on the planet to pay for placement—from toys for tots to funeral homes for elders. Even essential services, such as healthcare, are expected to pay to play.
谷歌毫無羞恥可言。如果你付錢給他們，人們就能找到你的生意。如果你停止付錢，你就會消失在視野中。他們希望地球上的每一個商業都為曝光付費——從兒童玩具到老年人的殯儀館。甚至連醫療等基本服務也被期望付費參與。

And it’s not just their search engine. They always invest in businesses that put them in the ‘trade routes’—controlling the linkages, and never getting involved in the creation of tangible value.
而且不僅僅是他們的搜索引擎。他們總是投資於那些讓他們處於「貿易路線」上的企業——控制聯繫，而從不參與實際價值的創造。

Source  來源

That’s their philosophy at YouTube, for example. Other people do the creating—Google just swallows up cash as the intermediary. And that’s also why they launched the Chrome web browser and Gmail. Even their map apps will destroy businesses that don’t play by their rules.
這就是他們在 YouTube 的哲學。例如，其他人負責創作——谷歌只是作為中介吞噬現金。這也是為什麼他們推出 Chrome 網頁瀏覽器和 Gmail 的原因。即使是他們的地圖應用程式也會摧毀不遵循他們規則的企業。

They want to stand between you and everything you interact with digitally—taking a cut of the action each time.
他們想要站在你與所有數位互動之間——每次都從中抽取一部分利潤。

This is their true character: Google is a tolltaker on the digital roads, not an innovator in the physical world. We don’t call them trade routes anymore, but from Google’s perspective that’s what they are. Like the East India Company, this is where exert force and seek to dominate.
這是他們的真實特徵：谷歌是數位道路上的收費者，而不是實體世界中的創新者。我們不再稱之為貿易路線，但從谷歌的角度來看，這正是它們的本質。就像東印度公司一樣，這裡是施加力量並尋求主導的地方。

They are like the bouncers at the door of the nightclub—but meaner and greedier than any bouncer you have ever seen. After all, no bouncer would ever assume that controlling the door allows you to bully the bar owner.
他們就像夜總會門口的保安，但比你見過的任何保安都更兇狠、更貪婪。畢竟，沒有任何保安會認為控制門口就可以欺負酒吧老闆。

Like the East India Company, they now make every decision based on a never-sated ambition for more money and power. Even now—after the senior management is fabulously wealthy—they want more and more.
就像東印度公司一樣，他們現在的每一個決策都是基於對金錢和權力的無止境的野心。即使現在——在高層管理人員已經非常富有之後——他們仍然想要更多。

But users don’t like being used. And—also like the East India Company—Google now has enemies in government, who fear its monopolistic initiatives.
但用戶不喜歡被利用。而且——就像東印度公司一樣——谷歌現在在政府中也有敵人，他們擔心其壟斷行為。

By the way, don’t try to learn about Google’s monopoly from Google. If you do a search, it only wants you to read articles about their responses, not the initial accusations.
順便提一下，不要試圖從谷歌那裡了解谷歌的壟斷。如果你進行搜索，它只希望你閱讀有關他們回應的文章，而不是最初的指控。

When you ask Google about antitrust, it provides these links
當你詢問 Google 關於反壟斷時，它會提供這些連結

In the days of the East India Company, this kind of abusive behavior was known as mercantilism. That was how you controlled the links bacck then.
在東印度公司時期，這種濫用行為被稱為重商主義。那時候，這就是你控制鏈接的方式。

What Google is doing is a new kind of digital mercantilism. As was true of its predecessor, this is an abuse of power.
谷歌所做的是一種新型的數位商業主義。與其前身一樣，這是一種權力的濫用。

While it’s working, it looks invincible. But a time of reckoning comes, sooner or later.
雖然它在運作時看起來無敵，但總有一天，審判的時刻會來臨。

It comes when subjugated people push back. And Google is now manipulating more people than even the East India Company at the peak of its domination.
當被征服的人民反擊時，它就會來臨。而谷歌現在操控的人數甚至超過了東印度公司在其統治巔峰時期的數量。

I’m not certain what the tipping point will be. But the governments of many (maybe even most) countries in the world now view Google as a hostile entity. And hundreds of millions of people feel the same way.
我不確定轉折點會是什麼。但世界上許多（甚至可能是大多數）國家的政府現在將谷歌視為一個敵對實體。而數億人也有同樣的感受。

These things play out slowly, usually over the course of decades. But, meanwhile, the resistance gets stronger and stronger. And all the software in the world won’t be enough to stop the backlash that’s coming.
這些事情通常會慢慢發展，通常需要幾十年的時間。但是，與此同時，抵抗力量卻越來越強大。而世界上所有的軟體都無法阻止即將到來的反撲。