Fin-Tech
捕鲸业透视金融科技创业
Before there were tech startups, there was whaling
今有高科技创业公司，昔有高风险捕鲸业
Few industries involve as much drama and risk as whaling did. The last voyage of the Essex, which inspired Herman Melville’s classic, “Moby Dick”, and is the subject of a new film, “In the Heart of The Sea”, gives a sense of the horrors involved. The ship left Nantucket in 1819 and sailed for over a year before being destroyed by a whale it was hunting. The 20 crew members survived the sinking, but found themselves adrift in the Pacific in three longboats, with little food and no water. Three opted to stay on a desert island, from which they were rescued three months later, on the verge of starvation. The others sailed on, hoping to reach South America but dying one by one. At first the survivors buried the dead at sea; then they resorted to eating the corpses of their crewmates. When they ran out of bodies, they drew lots to decide whom to shoot and eat. Only five of the 17 were eventually rescued. By then, they were so delirious that they did not understand what was happening.
很少行业像捕鲸那样充满戏剧性和风险。埃塞克斯号（Essex）的最后一次航行让人一瞥其中的恐怖。这次航行曾经为赫尔曼·麦尔维尔（Herman Melville）创作的经典小说《白鲸》（Moby Dick）提供灵感，如今又成了新片《海洋深处》（In the Heart of The Sea）的主题。这艘捕鲸船1819年离开美国楠塔基特岛（Nantucket）后航行了一年多，最终被它捕猎的一条鲸鱼摧毁。20名船员在沉船后幸存下来，不过他们只能坐上三条救生艇漂流在太平洋上，食物稀少，滴水全无。其中三名船员选择留在一座荒岛上，并在三个月后濒临饿死之际获救。其他人继续航行，希望能到达南美洲，却一个接一个地死去。刚开始，幸存者把死者葬于大海，后来，他们不得不开始吃同伴的尸体。尸体吃完之后，他们抽签决定把谁射杀吃掉。最终，17个人中只有5人获救，而那时他们都已神志混乱，不知发生了什么。
The only reason that anyone could be induced to take part in such a dangerous business was the fabulous profit that could be made. Gideon Allen & Sons, a whaling syndicate based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, made returns of 60% a year during much of the 19th century by financing whaling voyages – perhaps the best performance of any firm in American history. It was the most successful of a very successful bunch. Overall returns in the whaling business in New Bedford between 1817 and 1892 averaged 14% a year – an impressive record by any standard.
会有人被吸引参与如此危险的一个行当，唯一的原因是可以获取惊人的利润。19世纪的大部分时间里，位于美国马萨诸塞州新贝德福德（New Bedford）的捕鲸辛迪加“吉迪恩·艾伦父子公司”（Gideon Allen & Sons）资助的捕鲸航行每年获利60%，这可能是美国历史上最高的公司回报了。它是一批已然非常成功的公司中最成功的一家。1817年至1892年，新贝德福德捕鲸业的年均总体回报率为14%——无论用什么标准衡量，这都是一个可观的数字。
New Bedford was not the only whaling port in America; nor was America the only whaling nation. Yet according to a study published in 1859, of the 900-odd active whaling ships around the world in 1850, 700 were American, and 70% of those came from New Bedford. The town’s whalers came to dominate the industry, and reap immense profits, thanks to a novel technology that remains relevant to this day. They did not invent a new type of ship, or a new means of tracking whales; instead, they developed a new business model that was extremely effective at marshalling capital and skilled workers despite the immense risks involved for both. Whaling all but disappeared as an industry after mineral oil supplanted whale oil as a fuel. But the business structures pioneered in New Bedford remain as relevant as they ever were. Without them, the tech booms of the 1990s and today would not have been possible.
新贝德福德不是美国唯一的捕鲸港，而美国也不是世界上唯一的捕鲸国家。但1859年发表的一项调查显示，1850年全球活跃的捕鲸船共计约900艘，其中700艘来自美国，而这些美国的船只中有70%来自新贝德福德。多亏了一种时至今日仍然重要的新技术，该镇的捕鲸者得以主导整个行业并获得巨大利润。他们并没有发明新型船只或跟踪鲸鱼的新奇手段，而是开发出了一种新型商业模式，能极为有效地安排资本和组织熟练工人，尽管这两方面都涉及巨大的风险。随着矿物油取代鲸油成为燃料，捕鲸作为一个行业几乎消失。但在新贝德福德率先发展出的这种商业结构依然一如既往地重要。没有它们，20世纪90年代以及今天的科技繁荣就不可能实现。
Most historians trace the origins of the modern company back to outfits like the Dutch East India Company and its British equivalent. These were given national monopolies on trade in certain goods or with certain places. This legally buttressed status allowed them to fund themselves by selling shares to the public, helping to get stockmarkets off the ground. The managers of these multinational enterprises were professionals with only small ownership stakes. Lower-level employees generally had no shareholding at all.
大多数历史学家把现代公司的起源追溯到像荷兰东印度公司和英国东印度公司这样的机构。这些公司有国家授予的对某些货物或者对某些地方的贸易垄断权。这种有法律支撑的地位使它们能够通过向公众发售股票来筹资，从而催生了股票市场。这些跨国企业的管理者是专业人士，只拥有少量股权。较低级别的员工一般不持有任何股份。
By eliminating dependence on individual owners or managers, these entities became self-perpetuating. But their monopolies also embroiled them in politics and led inevitably to corruption. Both the British and Dutch versions ended up requiring government bail-outs – a habit giant firms have not yet kicked.
通过消除对个别所有者或管理者的依赖，这些实体变得自我永续。但垄断地位也将它们卷入政治，并不可避免地导致腐败。英国和荷兰的东印度公司最后都需要政府纾困——巨头企业至今仍未戒除这个习惯。
The whaling industry involved a radically different approach. It was one of the first to grapple with the difficulty of aligning incentives among owners, managers and employees, according to Tom Nicholas and Jonas Peter Akins of Harvard Business School. In this model, there was no state backing. Managers held big stakes in the business, giving them every reason to attend to the interests of the handful of outside investors. Their stakes were held through carefully constructed syndicates and rarely traded; everyone was, financially at least, on board for the entire voyage. Payment for the crew came from a cut of the profits, giving them a pressing interest in the success of the voyage as well. As a consequence, decision-making could be delegated down to the point where it really mattered, to the captain and crew in the throes of the hunt, when risk and return were palpable.
捕鲸业则使用了一种完全不同的方法。根据哈佛商学院的汤姆·尼古拉斯（Tom Nicholas）和乔纳斯·彼得·埃金斯（Jonas Peter Akins）的研究，它是最早解决协调激励所有者、管理者和员工这一难题的行业之一。在这一模式中没有任何政府支持。管理者在企业中持有大量股份，这让他们有充分理由来照顾为数不多的几位外部投资者的利益。其股份通过精心构筑的辛迪加持有，很少易手。至少在财务上，每个人都参与到整个捕鲸航行之中。船员的报酬来自利润分成，这使他们的利益也与航行的成败紧密相关。因此，决策权可以下放到真正重要的地方，即下放给辛劳追捕鲸鱼的船长和船员，因为那时的风险和收益都显而易见。
At the top of the New Bedford hierarchy was an agent or firm of agents like Gideon Allen, responsible for the purchase and outfitting of the ship, the hiring of the crew and the sale of the catch. To give them an incentive to cut the best deals possible, the agents put up a big share of the investment. Those with the best reputation received better terms from the other investors. Captains, who ran the show while the ship was at sea, often put up capital as well. A similar system of incentives is used in the riskier reaches of the investment-management business today, notes Mr Nicholas.
在新贝德福德等级制度的顶端是像吉迪恩·艾伦（Gideon Allen）这样的代理人或代理公司，他们负责采购和装备船只、雇用船员，并销售捕获的鲸鱼。为了激励他们尽可能达成最好的协议，代理人提供投资的很大一部分。名声最好的代理人从其他投资者处得到更好的条件。出海后全权负责的船长往往也会出资。尼古拉斯特别指出，当今投资管理业务中风险较高的部分也运用了类似的激励机制。
Investors received half to two-thirds of the profits. The rest was divided among the crew in what was known as the “lay” system. A captain might get a 12th lay (one-twelfth of the remaining profit). In Melville’s novel, Ishmael, who was new to the business, was originally offered a 777th lay but managed to haggle a 300th. Although that would probably have proved a paltry amount, it was a stake nonetheless, and set a benchmark for future pay. Ishmael’s friend Queequeg, a cannibal from the South Sea islands, got a 90th lay because he had experience with a harpoon. Demand for experienced crewmembers was so high that the Essex’s ill-fated captain, George Pollard, was immediately given a second command on the ship that rescued him (which sank as well).
投资者获得利润的一半至三分之二。其余利润用所谓的“渔获收益”制度（lay）在船员中分配。船长或许能获得剩余利润的十二分之一。在梅尔维尔的小说中，刚入行的以实玛利（Ishmael）最初拿到的开价是收益的七百七十七分之一，但设法讨价还价到三百分之一。虽然这最终可能是微不足道的收益，但它仍是一种利益，而且为未来的薪酬设定了基准。以实玛利的朋友、来自南太平洋岛上食人族的魁魁格（Queequeg）的开价是九十分之一，原因是他有使用鱼叉的经验。对有经验船员的需求非常高 ，因而埃塞克斯号的船长、命运多舛的乔治·波拉德（George Pollard）刚被救上船就立刻又被任命为船长（这艘船后来也沉没了）。
The investors often ended up underwater too
投资者最终也经常被拉下水
Every participant wanted to bring in returns quickly, but there were no artificial deadlines – nothing resembling what is now called “quarterly capitalism”. When whales became rare in accessible places, the crews from New Bedford extended their search to every corner of every ocean, however many years that took.
每一位参与者都想迅速得到回报，但当时并没有人为设定的最后期限——不像现在所谓的“季度资本主义”（quarterly capitalism）。当容易到达的海域里鲸鱼变得稀少时，新贝德福德的水手们把搜索扩展到每个海洋的每个角落，不管耗费多少年。
Safety in numbers
数字上的安全
To ensure that they were not ruined by a few disastrous voyages, the whaling firms invested in multiple expeditions at the same time, much as the venture capitalists of today “spray and pray”. A study published in 1997 concluded that, of the 787 boats launched from New Bedford during the 18th century, 272 sank or were destroyed. The firm that belonged to George Howland was not atypical: of its 15 ships, between four and nine were at sea at any given moment. One was sunk by a whale, three lost at sea, two burned by their crews, one destroyed by a Confederate gunboat during America’s civil war and five abandoned in Arctic ice. Yet Howland died a millionaire in 1852.
为了确保不被几次灾难性的航行所拖垮，捕鲸公司会同时投资多个探险，就像如今风险资本家“撒钱然后祈祷”那样。1997年出版的一份研究总结说，18世纪从新贝德福德下水的787艘船中，有272艘最终沉没或被摧毁。乔治·豪兰（George Howland）的公司并非个案：在任何时刻，它的15艘船里总会有4到9艘在海上航行。最后，1艘被鲸鱼撞沉、3艘在海上失踪、2艘被船员烧毁、1艘在美国南北战争期间被南军的炮艇击毁、5艘被遗弃在北极冰层中。然而，1852年豪兰去世时依然身家百万。
It helped that most of the whalers of New Bedford were strict Quakers, who prized frugality and shunned ostentation. This helped them not only husband their own capital, which was needed to finance voyages, but also to win over other investors. Hetty Howland Green, one of the richest agents, was said to have made her own shoes and to have owned only one dress.
新贝德福德的捕鲸者大多数都是虔诚的贵格会教徒，他们珍视节俭、避免炫耀，这有所裨益。不仅令他们节俭地使用自己的资本（资助航行所需），还帮助他们吸引到其他投资者。最富有的代理人之一赫蒂·豪兰·格林（Hetty Howland Green）据说给自己做鞋，只有一套礼服。
It also helped that they were open-minded: they readily employed anyone who could contribute to their ventures. Perhaps the single most important technological innovation used by New Bedford’s whaling fleet was the “Temple Toggle”, a harpoon tip devised by Lewis Temple, a former slave from Virginia.
他们思想开明，乐意雇用任何能为自己的冒险事业出力的人，这也有所帮助。新贝德福德捕鲸船队使用的最重要的一项技术创新也许就是“坦普尔套捕鲸枪头”（Temple Toggle）了，这是来自弗吉尼亚、曾做过奴隶的刘易斯·坦普尔（Lewis Temple）设计的一种鱼叉尖。
But the whalers’ main asset was their business model. In the 1830s, the legislatures of six American states approved charters for whaling corporations giving them the right to raise capital by selling shares to the public – much the same corporate structure as the Dutch and British East India Companies. None of the six survived the 1840s. “The diffuse ownership structure of the corporations, and the reduced stakes held by their managers, likely diminished the incentives for the managers to perform their role diligently,” concludes Eric Hilt of Wellesley College. Given the expense of buying, outfitting and launching a boat into the perilous ocean, the link between risk and reward needed, it seems, to be tighter.
但捕鲸者的主要财富是其商业模式。在19世纪30年代，美国有六个州的立法机构批准向捕鲸公司颁发许可证，给予它们通过向公众出售股份来融资的权利——公司结构与荷兰东印度公司和英国东印度公司大致相同。这六个州的相关立法都没能熬过40年代。韦尔斯利学院（Wellesley College）的埃里克·希尔特（Eric Hilt）总结道： “企业所有权结构分散，企业管理者所持股份降低，有可能都削弱了他们勤勉履职的积极性。”考虑到购买和装备一艘船并放船下水进入危险海域的费用，风险与回报之间的联系似乎需要变得更为紧密。
The lay system could work to the crew’s disadvantage, however. In an effort to reduce claims on the crew’s share of the profits, ruthless captains were said to abandon men on the trip home. (Similar shedding of employees is not unheard of at contemporary tech startups before a big payout.) Other schemes existed to cheat crew members, such as forcing them to buy clothing at inflated prices or to pay usurious interest on advances on their pay. And open-mindedness went only so far: although black sailors were not discriminated against in terms of pay, they were treated less well in other respects, receiving less food and worse quarters.
但是，渔获收益制度也可能对船员不利。为了努力减少船员对利润的瓜分，无情的船长据说会在返航时把船员遗弃。（现代的高科技创业公司在大发奖金前进行类似的裁员，也不是没听说过。）还有其他用来欺骗船员的把戏，如强迫他们以高价购买衣服，或为预支工资开出高额利息。而且，思想开明的程度也有限：虽然黑人船员在薪酬方面不受歧视，但在其他方面的待遇并不太好，分到的食物较少、住处也较差。
Yet the New Bedford system was undeniably effective. It soon emptied the oceans of whales, even as other lucrative opportunities emerged for daredevils determined to strike it rich, such as the California gold rush. “The same industrial growth that initially supplied markets and profits for whaling activity ultimately yielded opportunities more attractive than whaling to local capital,” wrote David Moment, a student at Harvard Business School, in 1957. In short, with returns dwindling, the crews and the capitalists turned to other ventures. But the business practices they developed are used in high-risk, high-return industries to this day.
然而，新贝德福德的制度无疑非常有效。它很快就让海洋里的鲸鱼被捕光了，尽管对一心致富的冒失鬼而言，同时还出现了加利福尼亚淘金热等其他赚大钱的机会。1957年，哈佛商学院的学生戴维·莫门特（David Moment）写道：“最初为捕鲸活动提供了市场和利润的产业发展，最终为本地资本带来了比捕鲸更具吸引力的机会。”总之，随着利润不断减少，船员和出资者转向了其他冒险。但是，他们发展出的一套商业惯例直至今日仍被应用于高风险、高回报的行业。
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