Yet many transactions require a lot more support than that. Modern transaction infrastructure includes the legal system, credit registries, Visa and corporate accounts. Buying shares may not seem very sophisticated, for instance, but when you buy a share you are lending money in exchange for a claim on the future profitability of a firm in, say, China.

要想使这种日常金融交易成为可能，会计师、监管者、经纪商和律师阶层必不可少。

This everyday financial transaction requires layers of accountants, regulators, brokers and lawyers to make it possible.

经济的进步，很大程度上就是降低交易成本，使更为先进复杂的交易成为可能。尽管交易成本有所降低，但它给现代经济造成了前所未有的消耗。约翰o沃利斯(John Wallis)和诺贝尔经济学奖得主道格拉斯o诺斯(Douglass North)曾经试图通过考察会计、法律、零售、管理和警察等行业的规模，来衡量总交易成本。他们发现，在1870年至1970年间，具有交易成本的行业在美国经济中所占比重已经从逾四分之一上升到略高于50％，提高了一倍。交易成本并不低廉，但由于我们在1970年比1870年富裕得多，因此，所有这些支出似乎都值得。

Much economic progress consists of reducing transaction costs to allow more sophisticated transactions to take place. Although transaction costs have fallen, modern economies are ever more consumed by them. John Wallis and Nobel laureate economist Douglass North once tried to tot up transaction costs by looking at the size of sectors such as accountancy, law, retail, management, policing and so on. They found that the transaction-cost sector doubled its share of the US economy, from just over a quarter in 1870 to just over half in 1970. Transactions don't come cheap, but since we were much richer in 1970 than in 1870, all this spending seems to have been worth it.

这一点值得记住。交易成本似乎通常意味着浪费、混乱或者官僚主义，但如果没有那些律师、会计师、秘书和销售人员，就没有现代经济。希望所有的交易成本都能像阿斯米尔花市或者筑地鱼市场那样，成为令人心动的一景。

That is worth remembering. Transaction costs often seem like waste, chaos or bureaucracy, but without all those lawyers, accountants, secretaries and sales staff, a modern economy would be impossible. If only all transaction costs could be as thrilling a spectacle as Aalsmeer or Tsukiji.