高斯寫的前言

高斯（R. H. Coase）替我快要出版的英語文章結集寫好了前言，短的，太太用電郵發給幾位朋友看，其中一位再發到網上去。據說網上熱鬧，一位網客翻成中文，翻得對不對又吵了起來。一位同學要考一下我這個老人家，要求我親自把該前言譯成中文，以饗網客。



重讀高斯這篇前言，覺得不易譯。他是典型的英國紳士，文字含蓄，譯得好要找董橋。另一方面，任何人替還生存的作者寫前言，只能贊，不能彈。在這約束下，前言究竟如何評價要讀到字裡行間，翻譯不免失真了。譯文如下：



為一本書寫前言，是要讓未來的讀者知道，讀這本書有什麼益處。以張五常這本結集為例，寫前言既容易又愉快。張五常的文章弄清楚了這些日子的經濟論著，太不成話的實在多，而我們應該怎樣修理、糾正一下。他以例子示範，通過自己的作品來表達經濟學應該是怎樣的一回事。



張五常運氣好，他跑到洛杉磯加州大學師從Armen Alchian與Jack Hirshleifer。他的博士論文──《佃農理論》──是一個有說服力與原創性的經濟學者的手筆。這作品得到高度評價，使他一九六七年獲得芝加哥大學頒予那聲望卓著的博士後政治經濟學獎，一年後被該校聘為助理教授。一九六九年芝大出版社把該論文出版成書。在芝大時他研究Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Aaron Director, HarryJ ohnson, Arnold Harberger, Theodore Schultz, Gale Johnson及其他人對經濟問題的處理通道，包括我自己的。但張五常可不是只懂得模仿。他吸納了這些人的思維，佔為己有，成為自己思想的一部分。



此後他的作品，很多收納在這集子裡的，超越了他的博士論文給我們的期許。他永遠集中於理解一個經濟制度為什麼會那樣運作，而不是以一個經濟制度應該怎樣運作為出發點，及怎樣可以達到這種運作。在分析制度的操作時，他以敏銳的事實觀察來支持他的論證。他的作品具細節，有悟性，照亮他研討的問題。在這本書中他審查了很多問題，主要是把這些問題通過一個產權與交易費用的鏡頭看。為了示範這些概念的用途，他探討的題材包括價格管制，知識產權，合約結構等，而我偏愛的是蜜蜂傳播花粉的服務的合約安排了。



格外有趣的，是他用同樣的概念去審查正在中國發生的極不尋常的有趣現象。這本書內有一篇張五常於一九八一年寫下（一九八二發表）的題為《中國會走向資本主義的道路嗎？》的文章。他的答案是中國會朝市場經濟的路向走。這答案當時被認為鹵莽不可信，然而，跟的發展，卻證實他的推斷是對了的。正如張五常在後來的一篇文章說：「不管將來怎樣，鄧小平的偉大改革肯定是經濟史上極不尋常的一章。」我認為中國目前的演進，不僅不尋常，而且極為重要。以我之見，中國的奮鬥是世界的奮鬥。那「偉大的改革」，只要不中斷，會對經濟思想有深奧無比的有利影響，不僅在亞洲，歐洲及南北美洲等地方也如是。這本書的讀者，以產權及交易費用的概念協助跟蹤，會多點明白中國發生些什麼事。



大約四十年前我與張五常多番研討，獲益甚大。這本書會讓讀者參與一個同樣的知識歷險旅程。

──高斯，二○○五年八月
Foreword by Ronald Coase


The purpose of a Foreword to a book is to tell the prospective reader what he (or she) will gain by reading it. In the case of this collection of Steven Cheung』s articles, it is both an easy and an enjoyable task. Steven Cheung』s articles make clear what is wrong with so much of current writing on economics and what should be done to put it right. He does this by example, showing through his own work how economics should be done.

Steven Cheung was fortunate that he went to UCLA, where he studied under Armen Alchian and Jack Hirshleifer. His doctoral thesis, The Theory of Share Tenancy, was the work of an assured and original economist. This work was regarded so highly that he was awarded the prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship in Political Economy at the University of Chicago in 1967, and was appointed assistant professor the following year. The University of Chicago Press published his thesis as a book in 1969. While at Chicago he studied the approaches to economic questions of Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Aaron Director, Harry Johnson, Arnold Harberger, Theodore Schultz, Gale Johnson and others, including me. But Steven Cheung was no mere imitator. He absorbed their ideas and made them part of his own.

The work that he has done since then, much of which is included in this volume, has more than fulfilled the promise of his first work. As always, he has concentrated on understanding why the economic system behaves as it does, rather than taking as his first aim, how the economic system ought to behave and how to bring this about. In his analysis of how the system operates, he uses a keen observation of the facts to support his argument. His writing is detailed, perceptive and illuminates the questions he discusses. He examines many questions in this book, seeing them, in the main, through the lens provided by the concepts of property rights and transaction costs. He demonstrates their usefulness by discussing, among others, price controls, intellectual property rights, the structure of contracts, and, a favorite of mine, the contracting of the service of bees for pollination.

What is particularly interesting is that he uses these same concepts in examining the extraordinarily interesting events which are now under way in China. Included in this volume is a paper Steven Cheung wrote in 1981 (it was published in 1982) with the title, 「Will China Go Capitalist?」 His answer, which at the time was regarded as wildly improbable, was that it would. Subsequent events, however, have vindicated Cheung』s prediction. As Steven Cheung says, in a later paper, 「Whatever the future holds, Deng Xiaoping』s Great Transformation must be regarded as one of the most remarkable chapters in economic history.」 I regard what is going on in China as not only remarkable but of the greatest importance. The struggle for China is, in my view, the struggle for the world. The 「Great Transformation」, if not interrupted, will have the most profound and beneficial effect on economic thought, not simply in Asia but also in Europe and the Americas. Readers of this book, by following these events with the aid of the concepts of property rights and transaction costs, will better understand what is going on.

I gained immensely from discussions with Steven Cheung some forty years ago. This book will enable the reader to participate in a similar intellectual adventure.

R. H. Coase, August 2005