????意大利海上共和國產生了許多當今商業世界耳熟能詳的發明。

????首先是減稅政策。威尼斯與熱那亞都耐心地見證了封建時代的消亡，因為這兩個城市并沒有產生盈余所需要的土地——威尼斯位于一個瀉湖當中，而熱那亞則是四面環山。但它們卻都是開展貿易的黃金地段。兩個城市將海軍租借給統治者來驅趕入侵者，因而贏得了進行貿易免交關稅的特權。

????12世紀末，這種條件給兩個城市帶來了驚人的繁榮，進而加劇了兩個城市之間的矛盾。為了籌錢造船、召集水手和購買貨物，貿易商想出了出售股份的點子。而為了分散風險，他們還發明了海損保險。

????對船只的需求刺激了威尼斯兵船廠的發展。工業革命發生之前，威尼斯兵船廠是歐洲最大的造船廠。那里的造船工人使用組裝線上生產的標準化配件，可以批量生產船舶——據稱他們一天內就能造出一艘槳帆船。

????最后，為了保持清晰的記錄，一種絕妙的發明橫空出世：復式記賬法。據說歌德曾經說過：“復式記賬法是人類最偉大的發明。”雖然他說這話的時候可能喝了點杜松子酒，但我們還是能夠理解他此番言論的意圖。如果沒有“債權”與“債務”，以及資產負債表這些概念，當代資本主義便不可能出現。

????獲勝者：威尼斯（財富中文網）

????The Italian Maritime republics invented many now familiar features of the business world.

????It started with tax breaks. Venice and Genoa sat out the feudal era because they didn't have the land needed to produce surpluses -- Venice is in a lagoon, and Genoa is hemmed in by mountains. But they were in the sweet spot for trade. By lending their navies to rulers fending off invaders, they won special privileges to trade without paying tariffs.

????Around the end of the 12th century, these conditions created an astonishing boom that fueled their feud. To raise the money to assemble ships, crews, and cargo, traders came up with the idea of selling shares in their operations. To spread the risk they invented marine insurance.

????The demand for ships spurred the development, at the Venice Arsenale, of the largest factory complex in Europe before the Industrial Revolution. Builders there mass-produced vessels using standardized parts on an assembly line -- it was said that they could build a galley in a single day. (Dante even gave it a cameo in his Inferno.)

????Eventually, to maintain clear records, there arose a sublime invention: double-entry bookkeeping. Goethe may have been into the schnapps when he (reputedly) said that "double-entry bookkeeping is one of the most beautiful discoveries of the human spirit," but you can see what he was driving at. Without the concepts of credito and debito and the balance sheet, modern capitalism wouldn't be possible.

????Winner:Venice