In my presentation, I'm going to talk about coffee, and its importance both in economic and social terms.
在我的演讲中，我将会讨论一下咖啡，以及它的经济和社会重要性。
We think it was first drunk in the Arab world, but there's hardly any documentary evidence of it before the 1500s, although of course that doesn't mean that people didn't know about it before then.
我们觉得是阿拉伯的人开始喝的咖啡，但是很少有1500年代之前的任何书面证据，尽管那并不意味着之前人们不知道它。
However, there is evidence that coffee was originally gathered from bushes growing wild in Ethiopia, in the northeast of Africa.
然而，有证明表明咖啡刚开始是从埃塞俄比亚的野生灌木丛中收集的，在非洲的东北部。
In the early sixteenth century, it was being bought by traders,
在十六世纪早期，商贩买到了咖啡，
and gradually its use as a drink spread throughout the Middle East.
然后逐渐的，它就作为一种饮品遍布中东各地。
It's also known that in 1522, in the Turkish city of Constantinople,
为人所知的是，在1522年，在土耳其的康士坦丁堡，
which was the centre of the Ottoman Empire, the court physician approved its use as a medicine.
这座城市是奥斯曼王朝的中心，法医证明了它可以作为一种药物使用。
By the mid-1500s, coffee bushes were being cultivated in the Yemen
到16世纪中期，咖啡树已经在也门得到了种植，
and for the next hundred years this region produced most of the coffee drunk in Africa and the Arab world.
在此后几百年里，这个地区生产了非洲和阿拉伯饮用的最多的咖啡。
What's particularly interesting about coffee is its effect on social life.
关于咖啡很有趣的一件事，就是它在社会生活中的影响。
It was rarely drunk at home, but instead people went to coffee houses to drink it.
很少有人在家里喝咖啡，相反，人们会去咖啡店喝。
These people, usually men, would meet to drink coffee and chat about issues of the day.
这些人，大多数是男人，会见个面喝咖啡，讨论一下当天的事情。
But at the time, this chance to share ideas and opinions was seen as something that was potentially dangerous,
但是在当时，这个分享想法和观点的机会被看做是有潜在危险的事情，
and in 1623 the ruler of Constantinople demanded the destruction of all the coffee houses in the city,
在1623年，康士坦丁堡的统治者要求毁掉城市所有的咖啡店，
although after his death many new ones opened, and coffee consumption continued.
尽管在他死后很多新咖啡店又开了起开，咖啡消费也在持续。
In the seventeenth century, coffee drinking spread to Europe,
在十七世纪，饮用咖啡传播到了欧洲，
and here too coffee shops became places where ordinary people, nearly always men, could meet to exchange ideas.
而且当时咖啡店成为普通人，基本上都是男人，会去见面交流想法的地方。
Because of this, some people said that these places performed a similar function to universities.
正因为此，一些人说这些地方和大学的功能差不多。
The opportunity they provided for people to meet together outside their own homes and to discuss the topics of the day
咖啡提供的这个让人们在除家之外的地方见面，以及讨论当天的话题的机会
had an enormous impact on social life, and many social movements and political developments had their origins in coffee house discussions.
对社会生活产生了巨大的影响，很多社会运动和政治进步都从咖啡屋的讨论中诞生。