三位大师 —— 哪三位大师呢？
毫无疑问，绕不开的就是科斯；而另外两位是哈耶克与施蒂格勒。
首先说科斯：
一九三七年发表的《公司的性质》。。。称之为交易费用，其实主要是讯息问题；不知价，所以公司替代市场。
原文极为精彩！从方法论层面，上来就讲到了假设的重要性：
Economic theory has suffered in the past from a failure to state clearly its assumption. Economists in building up a theory have often omitted to examine the foundations on which it was erected. This examination is, however, essential not only to prevent the misunderstanding and needles controversy which arise from a lack of knowledge of the assumptions on which a theory is based, but also because of the extreme importance for economics of good judgment in choosing between rival sets of assumptions.
而科斯回答的问题，也是基于两个假设之间的冲突：
In view of the fact that while economists treat the price mechanism as a co-ordinating instrument, they also admit the co-ordinating function of the “entrepreneur,” it is surely important to enquire why co-ordination is the work of the price mechanism in one case and of the entrepreneur in another. The purpose of this paper is to bridge what appears to be a gap in economic theory between the assumption (made for some purposes) that resources are allocated by means of the price mechanism and the assumption (made for other purposes) that this allocation is dependent on the entrepreneur-co-ordinator.
最终带出来的答案是：
...a firm will tend to expand until thecosts of organizing an extra transaction within the firm become equal to the costs of carrying out the same transaction by means of an exchange on the open market or the costs of organizing in another firm.
而为什么张五常老先生说，这些的背后主要是讯息费用呢？看科斯自己的阐述：
As more transactions are organized by an entrepreneur, it would appear that the transactions would tend to be either different in kind or in different places. This furnishes an additional reason why efficiency will tend to decrease as the firm gets larger. Inventions which tend to bring factors of production nearer together, by lessening spatial distribution,tend to increase the size of the firm. Changes like the telephone and the telegraph which tend to reduce the cost of organizing spatially will tend to increase the size of the firm. All changes which improve managerial technique will tend to increase the size of the firm.
注意这里的例子：
- 电话和电报，倾向于减少组织的成本、进而扩大组织规模
- 电话和电报的导入，毫无因为是带来讯息费用的降低了
- 而第二点提到的，所有提升管理技巧的，也都会扩大组织规模 —— 为什么？
- 减少的是隐瞒、欺骗啊，这更是讯息费用了，比如
- 工作输出不尽不实，往大里说，其实也是隐瞒、欺骗了
看科斯最后的结论吧，到现在来看，也还是有实际指导意义：
When we areconsidering how large a firm will be the principle of marginalism works smoothly. The question always is, will it pay to bring an extra exchange transaction under the organizing authority? At the margin, the costs of organizing within the firm will be equal either to the costs of organizing in another firm or to the costs involved in leaving the transaction to be"organized" by the price mechanism. Business men will be constantly experimenting, controlling more or less, and in this way, equilibrium will be maintained. This gives the position of equilibrium for static analysis. But it is clear that the dynamic factors are also of considerable importance, and an investigation of the effect changes have on the cost of organizing within the firm and on marketing costs generally will enable one to explain why firms get larger and smaller; We thus have a theory of moving equilibrium. The above analysis would also appear to have clarified the relationship between initiative or enterprise and management. Initiative means forecasting and operates through the price mechanism by the making of new contracts. Management proper merely reacts to price changes, rearranging the factors of production under its control. That the business man normally combines both functions is an obvious result of the marketing costs which were discussed above. Finally, this analysis enables us to state more exactly what is meant by the "marginal product" of the entrepreneur. But an elaboration of this point would take us far from ourcomparatively simple task of definition and clarification.
这里是说：
- 企业家是通过不断尝试，来确认自身企业与市场的边界
- 然而边界不是纯粹静态、而是动态不断变化的过程，要基于信息技术和管理水平不断调整
- 而以上的分析，就带来了，嗯，我认为直接翻译为企业家精神（initiative or enterprise）和管理（management）的差别
- 前者需要进行预测，并在市场中通过价格机制敲定合同 —— 其背后一定是某种激情、乐观主义和信念，不管是不是盲目乐观、自高自大
- 而后者，是基于价格信息的指引，安排企业内部的生产运作 —— 其需要的是谨慎、稳健，和数十年如一日的水滴石穿精神
科斯的原文，可以通读多遍。
而张五常老先生写到：
我把这话题带到合约选择那边去，说不是公司替代市场，而是一种合约替代另一种，是卷四《制度的选择》的话题了。
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