The theory of the firm: Coase call 公司理论：科斯集结令

　　If markets are so good at directing resources, why do firms exist? 如果市场这么擅长于指挥资源，公司是为什么而存在呢？

　　The first in our series on big economic ideas. 我们六大经济思想系列的第一篇。

　　One morning, an economist went to buy a shirt. 一天早上，一位经济学家去买了一件衬衫。

　　The one he chose was a marvel of global production. 他选了的那件衬衫是全球产品的一个奇迹。

　　It was made in Malaysia using German machines. 它是用德国机器在马来西亚生产的。

　　The cloth was woven from Indian cotton grown from seeds developed in America. 布料是用在美国研发的种子长成的印度棉花织就的。

　　The collar lining came from Brazil; the artificial fibre from Portugal. 领衬来自巴西；人造纤维出自葡萄牙。

　　Millions of shirts of every size and colour are sold every day, writes Paul Seabright, the shirt-buying economist, in his 2004 book, “The Company of Strangers”. 每天都有数百万件各种型号和花色的这种衬衫被售出，这位购买衬衫的经济学家保罗·西布莱特( Paul Seabright)在他2004年的《陌生人的团队》(The Company of Strangers)一书中写道。

　　No authority is in charge. 没有官方机构主导这一切。

　　The firms that make up the many links in the chain that supplied his shirt had merely obeyed market prices. 那些组成给他提供给了衬衫的这一链条上的许多环节的公司不过是遵守了市场价格而已。

　　Throwing light on the magic of market co-ordination was a mainstay of the “classical” economics of the late-18th and 19th centuries. 解释市场合作的魔力是18世纪末和19世纪的“经典”经济学的一条主线。

　　Then, in 1937, a paper published by Ronald Coase, a British economist, pointed out a glaring omission. 到了1937年，一篇由英国经济学家罗纳德·科斯(Ronald Coase)发表的论文指出了一个刺眼的漏洞。

　　The standard model of economics did not fit with what goes on within companies. 经济学的标准模型与发生在公司内部的事情不符。

　　When an employee switches from one division to another, for instance, he does not do so in response to higher wages, but because he is ordered to. 例如，当员工从一个部门转到另一个部门时，他这样做不是为了回应更高的工资，而是因为他奉命如此。

　　The question posed by Coase was profound, if awkward for economics: why are some activities directed by market forces and others by firms? 这个由科斯提出来的问题，虽然让经济学处境尴尬，影响却是深远的：为什么有的行为是由市场力量主导，有的是则是由公司主导呢？

　　His answer was that firms are a response to the high cost of using markets. 他的答案是：公司是对使用市场的高昂成本的一种回应。

　　It is often cheaper to direct tasks by fiat than to negotiate and enforce separate contracts for every transaction. 靠命令指挥任务经常要比为了没一个交易而谈判和执行单独的合同更划算。

　　Such “exchange costs” are low in markets for standardised goods, wrote Coase. 科斯写道，在标准化商品的市场中，这类“交易成本”(exchange costs)是低廉的。