帝国之子:近代早期英国儿童海外输送活动探析

The children of the empire: The transportation of children overseas in early modern Britain

17、18世纪,在英帝国初步崛起的进程中,英国社会出现一种向海外殖民地输送儿童的活动。这一活动既包含由官方主导的儿童海外输送计划,也包含由私人策划的非法拐卖犯罪和慈善济贫活动。它的形式和特点随着英帝国的沉浮而不断发展变化。近代早期英国儿童海外输送活动,则以官方输送与民间输送并存、正当手段与非法手段并举、政府与私人共同参与、儿童死亡率高等特点,更深刻地反映了英国在建设殖民帝国的过程中残酷与血腥的一面。同时,作为调节近代早期英国社会经济发展与殖民帝国建设间关系的重要手段,这一活动也与近代英国新"帝国"观念的构建有着十分密切的联系。

During the period of the 17 th and 18 th centuries, which is the initial stage of the British Empire, an activity of transporting children to the overseas colonies sprang up in the British society. Such activity consisted of official transport activities, private children trafficking and charity activities. Its forms and characteristics were constantly evolving with the rise and fall of the British Empire. The transportation of children overseas in early modern Britain has many characteristics, such as the coexistence of both official and private transport activities, the combination of both legal and illegal means, mutual participation of both government and businessmen, and high mortality of children, which profoundly reflected the cruelty and reeking of blood of the development of the British Empire. Besides, as an important means of regulating the relationship between British socioeconomic development and the construction of colonial empire in the early modern times, this activity also exerted an important impact on the construction of the concept of the modern British "empire".