来自《耶鲁大学开放课程：1871年后的法国第3集第3集》

How did France end up so centralized?

法国为何变得如此中央集权化
All states centralized,

所有中央集权化制的国家
became larger and centralized their ability

会变得更大并集中所有能力
to extract resources from their population.

对人民敲骨吸髓
If you take Europe in 1500, the year 1500,

如果我们回顾十六世纪的欧洲
there were about 1500 territorial states and they ranged from

有大约1500个附属国它们隶属于
big, consolidated monarchies

像英国西班牙和法国这样
like Spain and England and France

庞大稳固的君主制帝国
to bishoprics such as Trier, in Germany,

还有主教辖区就像德国的特里尔
that were hardly bigger

他们的领地比起
than the gardens of the archbishops who ran them.

大教主家的花园大不了多少
But, over a long period of time,

但是在相当长的一段时间里