That process may have started inadvertently in 1956 when the British administration of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia put a levy on the export of phosphates—bird manure—used in fertiliser. The manure has long since been depleted. However, a once-tiny set-aside of money has become the Kiribati Revenue Equalisation Reserve Fund, a $520m investment portfolio that has grown to about nine times the tiny atoll's GDP.

这个过程在1956年本来可以自然开始的，那时在位于密克罗尼西亚的吉尔伯特群岛上英国管理部门对出口用作肥料的磷酸盐-鸟的粪肥-强制增税。 如今粪肥早已耗尽。 然而，一次少许的资金存留逐渐成为基里巴斯的国家收入平均储备基金。52亿美元的投资组合已经增长到大约是这个小小岛国GDP的九倍。

A similar approach is now common among oil-producing countries, which, it is estimated, account for two-thirds of the assets in these sovereign-wealth funds, and are keen to diversify their national revenues, aware that their wealth is being pumped away. They have typically invested along similar lines to central banks, holding bonds, dollars and bank deposits. Temasek, a Singaporean entity created in 1974 to pool state-owned investments, started to change the mindset. It subsequently evolved into an even more complex investment vehicle. The heady combination of state-control, success and secrecy, entranced other governments.

在产油国同样的方法普遍存在，据估计，这些国家占了主权财富基金总资产的三分之二，意识到他们的财富正在被抽离，因而急于使他们的国民收入投资多元化。 很有代表性地，他们同样投资于中央银行，持有债券，持有美元，同时持有银行存款。 创建于1974年，管理着国有资产投资的新加坡淡马锡公司开始改变这样的投资思维。 并随后发展成为一种更为复杂的投资手段。 它把国家控股，成功，隐秘，机智有效的结合起来，因而对其它国家的政府极具吸引力。

Recently, central bankers have also begun wondering whether they have a fiduciary duty to make higher returns from the public wealth under their supervision, which could mean placing at least some part of foreign-exchange reserves in high-yielding, if less liquid, investments. In Asia this question has become increasingly pertinent in the past two years, as reserves have mushroomed.

近来，中央银行的银行家们也开始对之困惑，他们作为受托方是否有责任在他们的监管下为其委托人从社会财富中谋取更高的回报，这可能意味着至少把一部分的外汇储备用于低流通，但产出高的投资。 在亚洲，随着外汇储备的迅速增加，这个问题变得愈加紧迫。

The result has been a torrent of money into a finite pool of assets. There is no precedent for such fortunes suddenly to find their way into global financial markets, and they help explain the waterfall of liquidity that has driven up the value of risky (and less risky) assets of all descriptions around the world. The world's entire supply of shares is $55 trillion, and bonds account for a similar amount. Sovereign-wealth funds could soon become the most important buyers of such assets, and many others besides. If so, the world will witness the intriguing spectacle of its largest private companies being owned by governments whose belief in capitalism is often partial.

其结果已经演变为有限资产市场中泛滥的资金洪流。 像这样大量的财富突然涌入全球的金融市场，还没有先例。这是迅猛的流通性增长推高全球各种各样风险资产（和非风险资产）价值的原因 。 全世界全部的股票供应量是55万亿美元，债券占有同样的数量。 主权财富基金不久有可能成为这些资产最重要的买家，包括许多其它资产。 如果真是这样的话，人们将见证这有趣的奇观，其最大的私营企业为对资本主义半信半疑的一些政府所拥有。

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