06:55:29

32w/m

45words.

There was a time when the owners of shop and businesses in Chicago had to pay large sums of money to gangsters in return for ‘protection‘. If the money was not paid promptly, the gangsters would quickly put a man out of business by destroying his shop. Obtaining ‘protechon money‘ is not a modern crime. 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. Six hundred years ago, Sir John Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled near Florence. He soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto. 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. 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. Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way. In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. 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

notes:

曾經有段時間，芝加哥的商店和企業主不得不向黑幫支付大筆的錢以換取“保護”。如果不及時給錢，歹徒們就會搗毀店鋪，使之破產。獲取保護費並不是現代才有的犯罪。早在14世紀，英國人約翰·霍克伍德就有了一個驚人的發現:人們寧願花大筆的錢也不願畢生的心血毀於歹徒之手。六百年前，約翰·霍克伍德爵士帶著一隊士兵來到意大利，在佛羅倫薩附近定居下來。他很快就成名了，並被意大利人稱為Giovanni Acuto。每當意大利城邦互相交戰時，霍克伍德就把他的士兵租給願意支付高價的王子。在和平時期，生意不好時，霍克伍德和他的手下進軍一個國家的城市，燒毀了一些農場，如果人民給予保護金，他們就會主動離開。霍克伍德用這種方法賺了大筆錢。盡管如此，意大利人還是認為他是一個英雄。當他80歲去世時，佛羅倫薩人為他舉行了國葬，並畫了一幅畫，以紀念“最驍勇的戰士和最著名的領袖喬凡尼·阿庫托先生”

New Concept English three（14）