Mike Ashley, a billionaire retailer, is more synonymous(同义的，等同的) with a £6 ($8) Slazenger t-shirt than a £6,000 Saint Laurent leather jacket. After buying Harvey Nichols, with its flagship Knightsbridge department store, earlier this month, Mr Ashley commands an empire that does both. The deal would be easy to ignore. At £40m, the Harvey Nichols sale is a tiddler(小东西，微不足道的事). With a net worth of £3.4bn, Mr Ashley is far from Britain’s richest man. Frasers, the retail conglomerate that he built from a single sportswear shop in Maidenhead, does not quite creep into the ftse 100. Yet Mr Ashley, more than any other figure, has come to personify the state of British capitalism, for good and ill.(然而，阿什利先生比任何其他人物都更能体现英国资本主义的现状，无论好坏。)
亿万富翁零售商迈克·阿什利，人们更多将他与一件6英镑（8美元）的Slazenger T恤联系在一起，而非一件6000英镑的Saint Laurent皮夹克。本月早些时候，在收购了拥有骑士桥旗舰百货商店的哈维·尼克斯之后，阿什利先生掌控了一个两者兼营的帝国。这笔交易很容易被忽视。以4000万英镑的价格出售哈维·尼克斯，不过是小菜一碟。阿什利先生的净资产为34亿英镑，远非英国首富。他从梅登黑德一家单一运动服装店起家建立的零售集团Frasers，也并未完全跻身富时100指数。然而，阿什利先生比任何其他人物都更能体现英国资本主义的现状，无论是好是坏。
To understand how, leave “Harvey Nicks”, hop on a Lime bike and pedal ten minutes up Piccadilly. Stop outside Lillywhites, a department store on Regent Street, Britain’s grandest shopping street. What was once an imposing old Victorian sports emporium that sold equipment is today in effect a branch of Sports Direct, the discount sportswear store that made Mr Ashley rich.(这里曾经是一家气势恢宏的维多利亚时代体育用品商场，如今实际上已成为Sports Direct的一个分店，正是这家折扣运动服装店让阿什利先生发了财。) In it piles of polyester shirts at 70% off are sold alongside £6 “beer pong” sets, where Lillywhites once sold croquet(槌球游戏) mallets.
要理解这一点，离开“哈维·尼克斯”，骑上一辆Lime共享单车，沿着皮卡迪利大街骑行十分钟。在Lillywhites门前停下，这是摄政街（英国最宏伟的购物街）上的一家百货商店。这里曾经是一家气势恢宏的维多利亚时代体育用品商场，出售各种运动装备，如今实际上已成为Sports Direct的一个分店，正是这家折扣运动服装店让阿什利先生发了财。店内堆放着打七折的涤纶衬衫，旁边是6英镑的“啤酒乒乓”套装，而Lillywhites曾经在这里出售槌球槌。
At Sports Direct Mr Ashley performed retail alchemy(炼金术，魔力), turning polyester into billions. How did he manage it? Hammering suppliers, cheap labour and lousy working conditions. “We have it described to us as a gulag(古拉格，劳改营), as Victorian, as a workhouse, not a warehouse,” one union wallah(人员，家伙（印度英语）) told a parliamentary inquiry(议会调查) in 2016. A sheepish(窘迫的，羞愧的) Mr Ashley appeared before mps, promising to undo the worst excesses. If he was guilty of anything it was giving people what they wanted: cheap goods.(如果说他有什么罪过的话，那就是给了人们想要的东西：便宜的商品。) There is no period where working in a warehouse was well-paid, dignified work. Do you want five pairs of Slazenger socks for £4 or not?
在Sports Direct，阿什利先生施展了零售炼金术，将涤纶变成了数十亿财富。他是如何做到的呢？压榨供应商、廉价劳动力和恶劣的工作条件。“我们听到的描述是，这里像古拉格、像维多利亚时代、像济贫院，而不是仓库，”一位工会人士在2016年向议会调查作证时说。阿什利先生一脸窘迫地出现在议员们面前，承诺要纠正最恶劣的过度行为。如果说他有什么罪过的话，那就是给了人们想要的东西：便宜的商品。从来没有哪个时期，在仓库工作是高薪、体面的工作。你想要五双Slazenger袜子只卖4英镑吗？
Bargain-basement billionaires
廉价底层的亿万富翁