倫敦能涌現出硅谷嗎
This week Boris Johnson, mayor of London, has been banging his drum in New York. He is not, however, promoting his ideas about Europe, the Conservative party or Winston Churchill, the subject of his latest book.
Instead, Mr Johnson is doing the cyber version of taking coals to Newcastle: telling American tech entrepreneurs that London is a cool place to work and invest. Never mind Silicon Valley or New York’s Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass); US entrepreneurs and investors should head to Shoreditch and Bournemouth. Or so Mr Johnson’s sales pitch goes.
相反，約翰遜做的是網絡版的“將煤炭帶到紐卡斯爾”（紐卡斯爾是英國著名的煤炭產地，“將煤炭帶到紐卡斯爾”意爲多此一舉——譯者注）。他告訴美國高科技創業家：倫敦是一個很適宜工作和投資的地方。不要只盯着硅谷(Silicon Valley)或是紐約的小飛象街區(Dumbo)；美國創業家和投資者應當奔向肖爾迪奇(Shoreditch)和伯恩茅斯(Bournemouth)。約翰遜是這樣推銷的。It is something of a quixotic mission but is nevertheless notable for at least two reasons. First, it offers a useful reminder of how fashions in the political economy can change. A decade or so ago, when British trade missions tried to “sell” London to New York, they talked more about banks than computer bytes. Back then, people such as Ed Balls, when he was a Treasury minister, were keen to extol London’s light touch, “principles-based” regulation as a competitive advantage versus New York.
這是一項不切實際的任務，但至少有兩個原因使它值得關注。首先，它不無裨益地提醒我們：政治經濟的潮流會發生怎樣的變化。大約10年前，當英國貿易代表團設法在紐約“推銷”倫敦時，他們更多談論的是銀行，而非信息技術。那時，英國財政部的部長級官員埃德•鮑爾斯(Ed Balls)等人熱衷於將倫敦“點到爲止”且“基於原則”的監管鼓吹爲相對於紐約的競爭優勢。
These days no British politician wants to talk too much about banks, or wave a light touch regulatory regime as a lure. Memories of the 2008 crisis are too painful. Instead, the politically correct message for politicians is to extol the digital start-up scene. These companies are often small and create relatively few jobs — although the bigger tech picture is good, with a report this month suggesting that the tech industry in London employs more than 250,000 people [SOURCE?](against almost 350,000 in financial services in Greater London). This is cheering.
如今，英國政界人士誰也不願意過多談論銀行，或是炫耀點到爲止式的監管制度，將其作爲引資的誘餌。2008年金融危機留下的記憶太痛苦了。取而代之的是，如今政客們政治上正確的做法是支持數字初創企業。這些企業往往規模較小，創造的就業機會也不多。但高科技企業總體局面不錯——本月的一份報告顯示，倫敦的高科技產業僱傭了超過25萬人（相比之下，整個大倫敦區(Greater London)金融服務業吸納近35萬人就業）。這值得歡呼。The second reason why Mr Johnson’s visit is striking is that it inadvertently shows the distortions that still haunt the financial world. In some ways — as the British trade team point out — London has attractive features for entrepreneurs. [??WHY PLURAL - WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?]It is, for example, a truly international centre and the government is (belatedly) trying to make the visa regime more liberal. [REALLY - WE HEAR A LOT OF COMPLAINTS FROM FOREIGN BUSINESS ABOUT THE OVERLYU STRICT VISA REGIME]British officials told New Yorkers this week that some visas will be provided for the employees of digital start-ups and they promised to fast track other applications. British labour costs are lower than those in San Francisco, say, [AND COMPARED WITH OTHER EUROPEAN CENTRES? BERLIN?]and there is scientific innovation aplenty spreading out to the regions outside London. Cultural attitudes towards entrepreneurship are becoming more welcoming. Tech clusters are emerging, too.
約翰遜的訪問引人注目的第二個原因是，它無意中展示了仍在困擾金融世界的各種扭曲現象。正如英國貿易代表團所指出的，倫敦對於創業家來說在某些方面具有吸引力。例如，倫敦是一個真正的國際中心，英國政府正（姍姍來遲地）試圖使簽證制度更加自由。就在約翰遜造訪紐約的同一周，英國官員告訴紐約人，他們將爲數字初創企業的部分員工提供簽證，並承諾加快審批其他申請。英國的勞動力成本低於美國舊金山，而且倫敦周圍地區有豐富的科技創新活力。對企業家精神的文化態度也變得更加熱情。高科技集羣正在涌現。But the rub, as so often outside the US, is cash. [IS THIS NOT A BIG ISSUE EVERYWHERE AOUTSIDE THE US - NOT JUST LONDON. ]If you look at the raw data in isolation, the trajectory seems cheering. Last year $1.4bn worth of new funding was invested in digital ventures in London, while $2.1bn was invested across the UK as a whole. That is twice the level of 2013 — and, strikingly, 20 times higher than five years ago.
但就像美國以外經常遭遇的情況一樣，困難在於資金。如果只單獨看原始數據的話，發展軌跡似乎值得歡慶。去年，倫敦的數字企業吸引了14億美元的新投資，而整個英國的此類投資爲21億美元。這是2013年水平的兩倍——更是比5年前高出20倍。Half of that money was supplied by US venture firms, such as Accel Partners and Union Square Capital. The Silicon Valley-based Andreessen Horowitz, for example, recently put $58m into a financial technology company called TransferWise. Indeed, foreign direct investment (FDI) into London is now rising faster than in Berlin and New York, according to Gerard Grech, chief executive of Tech City UK.
其中一半的投資來自美國的風險投資公司，如阿塞爾夥伴公司(Accel Partners)和合廣資本(Union Square Capital)。最近，位於硅谷的風投公司Andreessen Horowitz向一家名爲TransferWise的金融技術公司投資了5800萬美元。的確，據英國科技城(Tech City UK)行政總裁傑拉德•格雷奇(Gerard Grech)介紹，現在流入倫敦的外國直接投資(FDI)的增長速度超過了柏林和紐約。But the sums remain modest compared with the US. Since 2012, American venture capital companies have invested around $70bn in Silicon Valley and $160bn overall, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Last year, several billion of this went to New York.
但與美國相比，這些金額仍相形見絀。美國國家風險投資協會(National Venture Capital Association)數據顯示，2012年以來，美國風險資本公司已在硅谷投資了約700億美元，在全美爲1600億美元。去年，紐約吸引了其中的數十億美元。The real issue for London tech companies is not so much finding seed capital but the finance to enable successful businesses to scale up. London-based companies can only dream of having even a fraction of the type of financial power of a company such as Uber.
倫敦高科技公司面臨的真正問題，與其說是尋找種子資金，不如說是安排融資使成功的企業能夠擴大規模。倫敦的企業只能夢想擁有哪怕一小部分優步(Uber)之類企業的財力。Of course, if you are an optimist — as the bouncy Mr Johnson undoubtedly is — you can argue that this change will come. The Silicon Valley tech scene is now so crowded and overvalued that there is growing appetite among US investors to look overseas.
當然，如果你是一個樂觀主義者——充滿活力的約翰遜無疑就是這樣的——你可以主張這種變化會到來。硅谷的高科技企業如今已異常擁擠，而且被嚴重高估，因此美國投資者轉向海外的慾望日漸增加。And European investors are desperate for productive places to put their cash; this is a region, after all, where $2 trillion-worth of bonds [BILLION/ MILLION/ TRILLION]have negative yields. The continent’s banks are also keen to jump on the bandwagon.
歐洲投資者也非常渴望投資於能產生高效益的地方；畢竟，歐洲2萬億美元的債券的收益率還是負值。歐洲大陸的銀行也熱切希望分得一杯羹。But the fact that half the start-up money raised in 2014 was from America, not Europe, shows the challenge. London financiers are better at devising complex derivatives trades than organising a sensible way to fund entrepreneurs on the scale that is needed. If Mr Johnson’s mission to New York helps to change this, he will deserve a rousing cheer. But it will be a slog.
但是，2014年初創企業所籌資金的一半都來自美國（而非歐洲）的現實凸顯了挑戰。比起按照創業家所需的規模提供一種明智的融資方式，倫敦的金融家更善於設計複雜的衍生品交易。如果約翰遜的紐約之行有助於改變這一狀況，他應當得到熱烈歡呼。但這絕非易事。
