巴菲特致股东的信（1983年）①主要企业原则

To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:

This past year our registered shareholders increased from about 1900 to about 2900. Most of this growth resulted from our merger with Blue Chip Stamps, but there also was an acceleration in the pace of “natural” increase that has raised us from the 1000 level a few years ago.

致伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司全体股东：

去年登记为伯克希尔的股东人数由1,900人增加到2,900人，主要是由于我们与蓝筹印花的合并案，但也有一部份是因为自然增加的速度，就像几年前我们一举成长突破1,000大关一样。

With so many new shareholders, it’s appropriate to summarize the major business principles we follow that pertain to the manager-owner relationship:

有了这么多新股东，有必要将有关经营者与所有者间关系方面的主要企业原则加以汇整说明:

o Although our form is corporate, our attitude is partnership. Charlie Munger and I think of our shareholders as owner-partners, and of ourselves as managing partners. (Because of the size of our shareholdings we also are, for better or worse, controlling partners.) We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but, instead, view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own the assets.

o 尽管我们的组织登记为公司，但我们是以合伙的心态来经营。查理.芒格跟我视伯克希尔的股东为合伙人，而我们两个人则为执行合伙人(而也由于我们持有股份比例的关系，也算是具控制权的合伙人)我们并不把公司视为企业资产的最终拥有人，实际上公司只是股东拥有资产的一个媒介而已。

o In line with this owner-orientation, our directors are all major shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. In the case of at least four of the five, over 50% of family net worth is represented by holdings of Berkshire. We eat our own cooking.

o 对应前述所有权人导向，我们所有的董事都是伯克希尔的大股东，五个董事中的四个，其家族财产有超过一半是伯克希尔持股，简言之，我们自给自足。

o Our long-term economic goal (subject to some qualifications mentioned later) is to maximize the average annual rate of gain in intrinsic business value on a per-share basis. We do not measure the economic significance or performance of Berkshire by its size; we measure by per-share progress. We are certain that the rate of per-share progress will diminish in the future - a greatly enlarged capital base will see to that. But we will be disappointed if our rate does not exceed that of the average large American corporation.

o 我们长远的经济目标(附带后面所述的几个标准)是将每年平均每股内含价值的成长率极大化，我们不以伯克希尔规模来作为衡量公司的重要性或表现，由于资本大幅提高，我们确定每股价值的年增率一定会下滑，但至少不能低于一般美国大企业平均数。

o Our preference would be to reach this goal by directly owning a diversified group of businesses that generate cash and consistently earn above-average returns on capital. Our second choice is to own parts of similar businesses, attained primarily through purchases of marketable common stocks by our insurance subsidiaries. The price and availability of businesses and the need for insurance capital determine any given year’s capital allocation.

o 我们最希望能透过直接拥有会产生现金且具有稳定的高资本报酬率的各类公司来达到上述目的，否则退而求其次，是由我们的保险子公司在公开市场买进类似公司的部份股权，购并对象的价格与机会，保险公司资金的需求会决定年度资金的配置。

o Because of this two-pronged approach to business ownership and because of the limitations of conventional accounting, consolidated reported earnings may reveal relatively little about our true economic performance. Charlie and I, both as owners and managers, virtually ignore such consolidated numbers. However, we will also report to you the earnings of each major business we control, numbers we consider of great importance. These figures, along with other information we will supply about the individual businesses, should generally aid you in making judgments about them.

o 由于这种取得企业所有权的双向手法，及传统会计原则的限制，合并报告盈余无法完全反映公司的实际经济状况，查理跟我同时身为公司股东与经营者，实际上并不太理会这些数字，然而我们依旧会向大家报告公司每个主要经营行业的获利状况，那些我们认为重要的，这些数字再加上我们会提供个别企业的其它信息将有助于你对它们下判断。

o Accounting consequences do not influence our operating or capital-allocation decisions. When acquisition costs are similar, we much prefer to purchase $2 of earnings that is not reportable by us under standard accounting principles than to purchase $1 of earnings that is reportable. This is precisely the choice that often faces us since entire businesses (whose earnings will be fully reportable) frequently sell for double the pro-rata price of small portions (whose earnings will be largely unreportable). In aggregate and over time, we expect the unreported earnings to be fully reflected in our intrinsic business value through capital gains.

o 会计数字并不会影响我们经营或资金配置的决策，当购并成本接近时，我们宁愿去买依会计原则不列示在帐面的两块钱盈余，而非那种完全列示在帐面的一块钱盈余，这也是我们当要购买整家企业(盈余可完全列示)的价格要比购买部份股权(盈余不可列示)贵上一倍而常常所须面临的选择一样类似，但就长期而言，我们却可期望这些不可列示的盈余透过长期资本利得反映在公司帐面之上。

o We rarely use much debt and, when we do, we attempt to structure it on a long-term fixed rate basis. We will reject interesting opportunities rather than over-leverage our balance sheet. This conservatism has penalized our results but it is the only behavior that leaves us comfortable, considering our fiduciary obligations to policyholders, depositors, lenders and the many equity holders who have committed unusually large portions of their net worth to our care.

o 我们很少大幅举债，而当我们真得如此做时，我们倾向把它们定在长期固定利率的基础之上，我们宁愿避免资产负债表过度融资而放弃许多吸引人的投资机会，虽然如此保守的作法有时使我们的绩效打了点折扣，但考量到对保户、存款人、借款人与全体股东将大部份财产托付给我们的责任时，这也是惟一令我们感到安心的作法。

o A managerial “wish list” will not be filled at shareholder expense. We will not diversify by purchasing entire businesses at control prices that ignore long-term economic consequences to our shareholders. We will only do with your money what we would do with our own, weighing fully the values you can obtain by diversifying your own portfolios through direct purchases in the stock market.

o 管理当局的心愿不会靠股东的花费来实现，我们不会因为要任意的多角化而随便买下整家公司却忽略了股东长期的经济利益，我们会把你的钱当作就好象在用自己的钱一般地谨慎，就好像你直接透过股票市场分散买进股票具备一样的价值。

o We feel noble intentions should be checked periodically against results. We test the wisdom of retaining earnings by assessing whether retention, over time, delivers shareholders at least $1 of market value for each $1 retained. To date, this test has been met. We will continue to apply it on a five-year rolling basis. As our net worth grows, it is more difficult to use retained earnings wisely.

o 我们认为应该定期检验结果，我们测试的标准是衡量保留下来的每一块钱是否能发挥至少一块钱的市场价值，而到目前为止，尚能达到标准，我们会以每五年一个循环，而随着净值的成长，这项目标将愈来愈难达成。

o We will issue common stock only when we receive as much in business value as we give. This rule applies to all forms of issuance - not only mergers or public stock offerings, but stock for-debt swaps, stock options, and convertible securities as well. We will not sell small portions of your company - and that is what the issuance of shares amounts to - on a basis inconsistent with the value of the entire enterprise.

o 惟有在当收到跟付出一样多的经济价值时，我们才有考虑发行库藏股，这项原则适用于各种情况，不管是购并或公开市场收购，另外债务转股权、选择权与转换权都一样，我们绝不会违背股东权益的情况下，把公司的一部份卖掉(这正是发行新股背后代表的意义)。

o You should be fully aware of one attitude Charlie and I share that hurts our financial performance: regardless of price, we have no interest at all in selling any good businesses that Berkshire owns, and are very reluctant to sell sub-par businesses as long as we expect them to generate at least some cash and as long as we feel good about their managers and labor relations. We hope not to repeat the capital-allocation mistakes that led us into such sub-par businesses. And we react with great caution to suggestions that our poor businesses can be restored to satisfactory profitability by major capital expenditures. (The projections will be dazzling - the advocates will be sincere - but, in the end, major additional investment in a terrible industry usually is about as rewarding as struggling in quicksand.) Nevertheless, gin rummy managerial behavior (discard your least promising business at each turn) is not our style. We would rather have our overall results penalized a bit than engage in it.

o 你必须完全明了有一种查理跟我可能会损及绩效表现的态度，那就是:不论价格高低，我们绝不会出售伯克希尔所拥有的好公司，只要我们预期它们能够产生一些现金流入，而我们也对该公司的经营阶层、劳资关系感到安心。我们希望不要重复犯下资金配置错误导致我们投入次级的产业，同时也对于那些只要投入大量资本支出便能改善获利状况的建议(预测通常很亮丽，支持的人也很诚恳，但到最后，额外的重大投资得到的结果就好象是在流沙上挣扎一般)，尽管如此，打牌似的管理行为(每轮都把最好的牌丢出)并非我们行事风格，我们宁可整体的结果逊色一点也不愿意花大把银子处理它。

o We will be candid in our reporting to you, emphasizing the pluses and minuses important in appraising business value. Our guideline is to tell you the business facts that we would want to know if our positions were reversed. We owe you no less. Moreover, as a company with a major communications business, it would be inexcusable for us to apply lesser standards of accuracy, balance and incisiveness when reporting on ourselves than we would expect our news people to apply when reporting on others. We also believe candor benefits us as managers: the CEO who misleads others in public may eventually mislead himself in private.

o 我们会以绝对真诚的态度对待大家，尤其是有关评估企业价值的各种利与弊方面。我们的原则是假设今天的位置对调时，我们希望你应该告知我们的所有事实，这是我们应该给你的，此外，由于伯克希尔是一家具有媒体事业的集团，我们责无旁贷地须以同样客观正确的标准要求自己，就像是我们要求新闻同仁一般，我们深信坦白对身为经营者的我们来说是有益的，因为一个在对外欺骗别人的人最后一定会把自己也给骗了。

o Despite our policy of candor, we will discuss our activities in marketable securities only to the extent legally required. Good investment ideas are rare, valuable and subject to competitive appropriation just as good product or business acquisition ideas are. Therefore, we normally will not talk about our investment ideas. This ban extends even to securities we have sold (because we may purchase them again) and to stocks we are incorrectly rumored to be buying. If we deny those reports but say “no comment” on other occasions, the no-comments become confirmation.

o 但坦白的原则也有限度，那就是我们仅在法令规定范围内讨论我们在股票上的进出，就像一件好产品或商业购并案一样，好的投资机会不多所以珍贵，且很容易被盗用，所以通常我们不会详细说明投资细节，这甚至包括已经出售的部份(因为我们很有可能会在买回来)与传言我们要买进的，若我们否认相关报导但说:“不予置评”，有时反而会被认为已经证实。

That completes the catechism, and we can now move on to the high point of 1983 - the acquisition of a majority interest in Nebraska Furniture Mart and our association with Rose Blumkin and her family.

终于结束教条式的说明，接下来进行到1983年的重点，购并内布拉斯加家具店主要股权以及我们与RoseBlumkin一家的交往过程。