专业中间商的出现:基于西方经济史与超边际经济学的解释

The Emergence of Specialized Middlemen:From the Perspective of Western Economic History and Infra-marginal Economics

为什么中间商存在?本文提出这一问题。依托西方经济史文献,解释中间商的功能及经济性质,指出这些文献在解释中间商的出现与经济变迁上存在的不足,进而说明需要一种解释经济组织变迁的方法——超边际分析方法。本文厘清了中间商在经济中存在的理由:专业中间商是交易效率充分改进(或单位交易费用不断降低)所导致的分工演进的产物,它们的出现是经济发展的一个标志。本文对于理解经济组织尤其是商业组织的结构变迁具有重要意义。

This paper starts from the inquiry that I made:why does the specialized middleman emerge and exist in the economy? In terms of their economic nature, I examine the western economic historical literature and indicate that the puzzle still perplexes us.I argue that the infra-marginal approach is appropriate in elucidating the justification of the emergence and existence of middlemen and thereby present a proposition that the specialized middleman is a product of the evolving division of labor propelled by the sufficiently improved transaction efficiency (or by the continuingly falling transaction costs).This paper is significant for understanding the structural change particularly in the commerce.