王权式微下的约翰·伊维林伦敦城煤烟污染治理探究

An Exploration of the Pollution Control of Coal Smoke in John Evelyn’s London City During the Recession of Royal Power

17世纪中后期,英国伦敦城几乎所有的居民和大多数手工作坊都使用煤作为燃料,导致大量煤烟对伦敦城空气的严重污染。这种情况引起了一些有识之士的关注,保王党人约翰·伊维林是其中的代表之一。他企图借助复辟的查理二世的权力治理伦敦城的煤烟污染问题。伊维林试图通过向国王提供伦敦城煤烟治理的方案以及研究少烟的新燃料,以引起国王对此事的重视。尽管查理二世对煤烟充满厌恶之情,也在一定程度上支持伊维林治理煤烟的观点,然而,他的王权客观上已经深受议会掣肘,面对伊维林提出的宏大的治烟方案颇感无能为力。更重要的是,查理二世首要的目标是如何获取议会的大量拨款以满足他在欧洲战事中的巨额战争费用和他毫无节制的巨额享乐费用,因此他对伊维林治理煤烟的方案只能给予有限的回应。

Nearly all citizens used coal in London in the middle and late 17 th century.It produced a large number of coal smoke and caused unprecedented pollution to the air of London city.This matter aroused the concern of some people of insight.John Evelyn,a royalist,was one of the representatives of this group.He tried to resort to the power of Charles II to deal with the smoke pollution of London.However,the power of Charles II had been deeply constrained by English parliament.During his reign,his primary goal was to obtain a large amount of appropriations from the parliament to meet his huge war expenses in Europe and unrestrained pleasure expenses.Thus,he only gave limited support to Evelyn’s plan of controlling smoke.