Lesson 14

There was a time when the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago had to pay large sums of money to gangsters in return for protection.
曾经有一个时期，芝加哥的商店和企业主们不得不向歹徒支付大笔金钱以换取保护。
If the money was not paid promptly, the gangsters would quickly put a man out of business by destroying his shop.
如果这笔钱没有被及时支付，这些歹徒会通过破坏他的店来迅速让他破产。
Obtaining protection money is not a modern crime.
获取保护费并不是一种现代犯罪。
As long ago as the fourteenth century, an Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood, made the remarkable discovery that people would rather pay large sums of money than have their life work destroyed by gangsters.
早在十四世纪，一个名叫约翰·霍克伍德爵士的英国人就有一个非凡的发现：人们宁愿支付大笔金钱，也不愿让他们的毕生心血被歹徒毁掉。
Six hundred years ago, Sir John Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled near Florence.
六百年前，约翰·霍克伍德爵士带着一群士兵来到意大利，并在佛罗伦萨附近定居。
He soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto.
他很快出名了，并被意大利人称为乔瓦尼·阿库托。
Whenever the Italian city-states were at war with each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded.
每当意大利各城邦之间发生战争时，霍克伍德总是把他的士兵雇佣给那些愿意支付他所要求的高价的王公贵族。
In times of peace, when business was bad, Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after burning down a few farms, would offer to go away if protection money was paid to them.
在和平时期，当生意惨淡时，霍克伍德和他的部下就会进军一个城邦，在烧毁几座农场后，他们会提议，如果向他们支付保护费，他们就离开。
Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way.
霍克伍德以这种方式赚取了大量金钱。
In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero.
尽管如此，意大利人还是把他当作英雄看待。
When he died at the age of eighty, the Florentines gave him a state funeral and had a picture painted which was dedicated to the memory of the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.
当他在八十岁去世时，佛罗伦萨人为他举行了国葬，并请人画了一幅画，以此纪念最英勇的战士和最卓越的领袖乔瓦尼·豪考杜先生。