Global linguistic convergence has increased rather than reduced translation demand.

Evidence

Today, the dragoman has given way to the highly trained professional trans­ lator, a member of an immense and still rapidly growing profession. Despite the widespread use and understanding of a few major languages, translators are now more in demand than ever before. Bodies like the United Nations and the Eu­ ropean Union require that speeches and documents be translated into all the official languages. Sometimes even purely domestic speeches and documents must be translated, in countries with more than one official language. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 199

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the common assumption that a global lingua franca eliminates the need for translators — parallels the earlier Milgrom point that growing trade raised rather than lowered monitoring costs.