加勒特·哈丁,世界著名生态经济学家,加利福尼亚大学圣巴巴拉分校的人类生态学荣誉退休教授,撰写了大量生态学、生物学和伦理学方面的著作。1968年在《科学》杂志上发表了“公地的悲剧”。这篇文章被用来解释由于公共产品的使用具有非竞争性和非排他性,往往使得它在使用过程中落入低效甚至无效的资源配置状态。这篇文章的背景是:英国曾经有一种土地制度——封建主在自己的领地中划出一片尚未耕种的土地作为牧场(称为“公地”),无偿向牧民开放。这本来是一件造福于民的事,但由于是无偿放牧,每个牧民都养尽可能多的牛羊。随着牛羊数量无节制地增加,公地牧场最终因“超载”而成为不毛之地,牧民的牛羊最终全部饿死。这就是公地悲剧的故事。15~16世纪的英国,草地、森林、沼泽等都属于公共用地,耕地虽然有主人,但是庄稼收割完以后,也要把栅栏拆除,敞开作为公共牧场。由于英国对外贸易的发展,养羊业飞速发展,于是大量羊群进入公共草场。不久,这类土地开始退化,“公地的悲剧”出现了。于是一些贵族通过暴力手段非法获得土地,开始用围栏将公共用地圈起来据为己有,这就是臭名昭著的“圈地运动”。“圈地运动”使大批的农民和牧民失去了维持生计的土地,历史书中称之为血淋淋的“羊吃人”事件。但在“圈地运动”的阵痛之后,英国人惊奇地发现,草场变好了,英国人作为整体的收益提高了。由于土地产权的确立,土地由公地变为私人领地的同时,拥有者对土地的管理更高效了,为了长远利益,土地所有者也会尽力保持草场的质量。同时,土地兼并后以户为单位的生产单元演化为大规模流水线生产,劳动效率大为提高。英国正是从“圈地运动”开始,逐渐发展为日不落帝国。加勒特·哈丁的著作《生活在极限之内:生态学、经济学和人口禁忌》由上海世纪出版集团出版。 Garrett Harding, a world-renowned eco-economist and honorary retired professor of human ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has written numerous books on ecology, biology and ethics. 1968 Published in Science magazine “tragedy of the commons ”. This article is used to explain that due to the non-competitive and non-exclusive use of public goods, it often makes it inefficient or even ineffective in resource allocation. The background to this article is: There was once a land system in the United Kingdom - the feudal lord outflanked an uncultivated land in its own territory as a ranch (known as a “commons”), open to herdsmen for free. This would have been a blessing to the people, but each herder raised as many cattle and sheep as shepherded for free. As the number of cattle and sheep increased uncontrollably, the commune ranches eventually became barren due to “overloading”, and the herdsmen eventually died of starvation. This is the story of the tragedy of the commons. From 15th to 16th centuries, Britain, grasslands, forests and swamps all belong to public land. Although cultivated land has owners, the fences have to be dismantled and opened as public ranches after the crops have been harvested. Due to the development of British foreign trade, the sheep industry developed rapidly, so a large number of herds entered the public grassland. Soon, such lands began to degenerate, and “the tragedy of the commons” appeared. So some aristocrats illegally acquired land through violence and began to fence public land for themselves. This is notorious “encirclement movement.” “Rodeo Movement” has caused large numbers of peasants and pastoralists to lose their means of subsistence through the bloody “sheep eating” incident in history. But after the throes of “Rodeo Movement,” the British were surprised to find that the pastures were getting better and that the British overall income had risen. Owing to the establishment of land property rights, land is changed from public land to private land. At the same time, the owner manages the land more efficiently. In the long-term interest, the land owner also tries his best to maintain the quality of pasture. At the same time, the unit of production after the land acquisition has evolved into a large-scale assembly line production and the labor efficiency has greatly increased. It is from the beginning of the “encirclement movement” in Britain that it gradually developed into an imperial country. Garrett Harding’s book Living within Limits: Ecology, Economics and Population Taboo was published by Shanghai Century Publishing Group.