20世纪90年代中期，人们首次用“全球化”一词来描述美国大型企业的活动。冷战结束使美国陷入两难境地：与苏联的军备竞赛促使金融界大量资金涌入美国，导致美元币值高企，这反过来又使美国跨国公司几乎无法出口商品。美国企业发现，在国内生产产品的成本已经如此高昂，若要在海外保持竞争优势，就更加负担不起。

The first time the word globalisation was used was in describing the activities of the large American companies during the mid-1990s. The end of the cold war put the US in a conundrum; the arms race with the USSR resulted in financial circles pouring money into the US resulting in an expensive dollar which in turn made the climate for US multi-nationals to export their goods virtually impossible. US Companies found it too expensive to maintain a competitive position overseas when it was costing them so much making the products at home.

因此必须寻找更廉价的海外市场。在外国设立生产设施、利用廉价劳动力，并且几乎没有劳动法规约束、甚至存在公然的剥削，这一做法被称为全球化。

Hence cheaper foreign markets had to be found. The setting up of production facilities in a foreign country making use of the cheap labour, with very little labour laws and outright abuse was termed globalisation.

第一个被纳入全球化进程的国家是俄罗斯，以及苏联解体后残存的部分。1990年共产主义的垮台和苏联的解体，为资本主义机构提供了一个绝佳机会，使其能够把庞大的中央集权经济转变为以市场为导向的经济。共有1290亿美元涌入俄罗斯，国际货币基金组织和世界银行推行了一系列发展方案。俄罗斯经济向外国投资敞开大门，工业被出售给外国人，使国家容易受到世界价格波动的冲击。1997年，由于对俄罗斯失去信心，投机者开始撤出资金，而自由化要求资本流动不受任何限制，俄罗斯无力自卫。这场危机使贫困人口从200万增至6000万，增长了3000%。联合国儿童基金会指出，这导致每年多出50万例死亡。俄罗斯清楚地表明，全球化直接使危机达到了如此严重的程度。

The first nation to be given the globalisation treatment was Russia and what was left of it after the collapse of the USSR. The fall of communism in 1990 and the break-up of the Soviet Union represented a wonderful opportunity for capitalist institutes to transform a huge centralist economy to one that was market orientated. A total of $129 billion poured into Russia with the IMF and the World Bank implementing a number of its development schemes. The Russian economy was opened to foreign investment and industry was sold to foreigners leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world prices. In 1997, due to a loss on confidence in Russia, speculators began to withdraw their money and Russia was unable to defend itself as liberalisation required there to be no restrictions on capital flows. The crisis raised poverty from 2 million to 60 million, a 3000% increase. UNICEF noted that this resulted in 500,000 ‘extra’ deaths per year. Russia is a clear example that globalisation directly allowed the crisis to reach the peak it did.

今天的全球化实际上是一个超级大国推动各种意味着自由贸易的政策，而这本质上是历史上重商主义进程的延续。美国于1776年脱离英国殖民统治，认识到了英帝国政策的不公与严苛。然而，美国如今也承担起了那一角色，正在做当年英国对他人所做的事情。在为击败英国重商主义贸易做法而进行的1812年战争结束后不久，美国政治家亨利·克莱指出，美国有必要发展防御能力，并引用了一位英国领导人的话："各国和我们一样清楚，我们所说的'自由贸易'，无非是凭借我们所享有的巨大优势，垄断他们所有市场以销售我们的制成品，并阻止他们每一个国家成为制造业国家。"25

Globalisation today in reality is the superpower pushing for various policies that imply free trade which is in fact a continuation of mercantilist processes seen throughout history. The US broke away from British colonial rule in 1776, recognising the unfairness and harshness in Imperial Britain’s policies. However, the US has now taken on that role and is doing the same things that the British once did to others. Shortly after the War of 1812 that was fought to defeat British mercantilist trade practices, US statesman Henry Clay pointed to the necessity of the United States developing a defensive capability by quoting a British leader, ‘Nations knew, as well as [ourselves], what we meant by “free trade” was nothing more nor less than, by means of the great advantage we enjoyed, to get a monopoly of all their markets for our manufactures, and to prevent them, one and all, from ever becoming manufacturing nations.’25

尤其是里根和撒切尔时代，自由贸易以全球化的名义被推行到世界大部分地区。国有的一切几乎被妖魔化，而公有的一切则被鼓励私有化，必要时还动用军事干预。

The Reagan and Thatcher era in particular, saw free trade pushed to most parts of the globe under the guise of globalisation. Almost demonising anything that was state owned, and encouraging the privatisation of anything that was owned by the public, using military intervention if needed.

结构调整政策被用来开放贫穷国家的经济，使富裕国家的大型企业能够以低廉的成本拥有或获取许多资源。

Structural adjustment policies were used to open up economies of poorer countries so that big businesses from the rich countries could own or access many resources cheaply.

全球化的失败有其纪录可查。在迄今为止最为全面的贫困研究之一《全球化记分卡 1980–2000》中，马克·韦斯布罗特、迪安·贝克及经济与政策研究中心的其他研究人员记录到：与1960–1980年相比，在全球化时代（1980–2000年），经济增长以及预期寿命、儿童死亡率、教育水平和识字率的改善速度都有所下降。1960至1980年间，许多国家实行保护主义政策，使其经济免受国际市场的冲击，以培育本国产业并使其具备竞争力。而这些政策，正是美国经济繁荣所依赖的同一套政策。

Globalisation has a track record of failure. In perhaps the most comprehensive study of poverty to date, Scorecard on Globalization 1980-2000, Mark Weisbrot, Dean Baker and other researchers at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research documented that economic growth and rates of improvement in life expectancy, child mortality, education levels and literacy all have declined in the era of globalization (1980-2000) compared to the years 1960-1980. From 1960-1980 many countries maintained protectionist policies to insulate their economies from the international market to nurture their domestic industries and allow them to become competitive. Those policies are the same ones on which US economic prosperity was built.