It is stunning that Apple managed to sell 74m smartphones in the fourth quarter of last year. The resulting profit, $18bn, is unfathomably large. At the same time, though, it is not a surprise that Apple is the most profitable company in the world. The influence of its products is immense. We live in an age of information, mobility and connectivity. Apple is the company for our times and so it seems natural that it should make the most money.
苹果(Apple)去年第四季度7400万部智能手机的销售业绩着实令人震惊。由此产生的180亿美元的巨额利润超出了人们的想象。但与此同时，苹果是世界上最赚钱的公司并不令人感到意外。苹果产品的影响力非常大。我们生活在一个信息、移动和互联的时代。苹果正是应运而生的公司，所以它最赚钱似乎是理所当然的。
In that context it is striking to consider the companies that have led the US profits table over the past six decades.
在这种背景下，分析过去60年引领美国利润表的公司是非常有趣的事情。
At one end, Apple; at the other, General Motors. Between them, a gradual transformation of the US corporate landscape. In the 1950s, the fattest profits were stamped out by manufacturers and heavy industry; the scene today is more raucous, with technology, healthcare, finance and telecoms among the biggest earners. And through the years in between, a single wide streak of continuity: huge profits at the oil groups.
榜单的一头是苹果，而另一头是通用汽车(General Motors)。在它们中间的公司则体现了美国企业格局的逐步转变。上世纪50年代，制造业企业和重工业创造了最丰厚的利润；现在的榜单更加多元化，科技、医疗、金融以及电信行业都加入了最赚钱企业之列。而在这些年里，唯一始终不变的是依然赚取巨额利润的石油集团。
Looking down a list of the 10 most profitable companies in the S&P 500 for each of the past 60 years, the continuity is astonishing. From 1955 to 1961 the list barely changes. It is topped by General Motors, its rivalFord is somewhere on it, and the rest is a mix of big oil — Exxon, Texaco, Chevron, Mobil, Gulf Oil — and industrial groups.
看一下过去60年里每年标普500指数(S&P 500)成分股中10家最赚钱公司的榜单，就会发现惊人的连续性。从1955年至1961年，这个榜单几乎没有变化。通用汽车位居榜首，其竞争对手福特汽车(Ford)也在其中，其余的是石油巨头——埃克森(Exxon)、德士古(Texaco)、雪佛龙(Chevron)、美孚(Mobil)和海湾石油公司(Gulf Oil)——和工业集团。
Then, in 1961, comes the first sign that the US and, in lockstep, the global economy is changing:International Business Machines squeaks on to the list. The company had been producing transistor-based (rather than switch- or vacuum-tube based) computers for a few years, and had already invented disc-based random-access memory. But IBM’s appearance on the list is not just a moment for technology. It is a milestone in the ascendancy of informational labour — as opposed to the physical work of manufacturing. IBM computers were being used to run airline reservation systems. Its Selectric typewriter had just been introduced.
接下来在1961年，首次有迹象表明美国经济以及与其步调一致的全球经济正在发生变革：IBM跻身最赚钱公司的名单之列。当时IBM生产晶体管(而非基于开关或真空管的)电脑已有数年时间，并发明了可随机访问的磁盘存储器。但IBM出现在名单上不仅仅代表着科技时代的来临，它也是信息化劳动相对于制造业体力劳动获得优势的一个里程碑。当时，IBM的电脑被用于运行航空订票系统，而该公司的Selectric电动打字机才刚刚问世。
The following 25 years are strikingly consistent. The motor industry, oil and industrials dominate the list with IBM. Only three companies break this pattern. In 1967, Eastman Kodak appears at number 9. In 1970, the conglomerate craze (the flip side of today’s break-up fever) shows up briefly, in the form of ITT — telecom, hotel operator, bread baker and industrial manufacturer. AT&T cracks the top 10 in 1985, after the government dismantled its monopoly in US telephony.
随后的25年展现了惊人的连续性。汽车、石油以及工业企业与IBM共同主宰榜单。只有3家公司打破了这种局面。1967年，伊士曼柯达公司(Eastman Kodak)出现在第9位。1970年，组建企业集团的热潮（如今拆分热的另一面）风靡一时，典型代表是美国国际电话电报公司(ITT)，旗下业务包括电信、酒店运营、面包店以及工业制造。在美国政府打破其在电话服务行业的垄断地位之后，AT&T于1985年跌出了前10名的榜单。
The real moment of change comes in 1986, when two pure consumer goods companies reach the top tier. Philip Morris (now Altria) and Nabisco — tobacco and biscuits — take the number seven and 10 spots. Five years later the top 10 looks dramatically different than it did in 1955. Merck and Bristol-Myers reflect the growing importance of healthcare while Coca-Cola andProcter & Gamble join Altria and underline the strength of the consumer economy.
真正变革的时刻出现在1986年，当时两家纯消费品企业进入了前10名。后来改名为奥驰亚(Altria)的烟草公司菲利普莫里斯(Philip Morris)和饼干生产商纳贝斯科(Nabisco)分别占据第7位和第10位。5年之后，位列前10名的公司与1955年相比已发生巨大变化。制药公司默克(Merck)和百时美施贵宝(Bristol-Myers Squibb)的上榜反映了医疗保健的重要性日益上升，而可口可乐(Coca-Cola)和宝洁公司(Procter & Gamble)与奥驰亚一起上榜则突显出消费经济的力量。
It is tempting to draw a line from the state of the economy or the world at large to the state of corporate profitability. But companies have a life of their own. Mergers, for example, have as much to do with where profits accumulate as which industries are rising or falling. It is easy to point to “the rise of the American consumer” but the US was already a consumer economy in the 1950s with household expenditures accounting for well over half of output.
人们会忍不住认为美国经济乃至整个世界经济的状况与企业盈利能力状况存在关联。但是企业有其自身的生命周期。例如，公司合并既与利润积累相关，也与行业的崛起或衰落有关。人们很容易认为这是“美国消费者崛起”的结果，但美国在上世纪50年代就已经是消费经济，那时家庭支出占到社会总产出的一半以上。
That said, manufacturing accounted for almost 30 per cent of US GDP at the time. Now it is 12 per cent while finance, professional services and healthcare have gone from 7 per cent to 21 per cent.
话虽如此，但当时制造业对美国国内生产总值(GDP)的贡献比例接近30%。现在这一比例为12%，而金融、专业服务和医疗的比例已经从7%提高到21%。
In the past 20 years there have been, three important additions to the list. First, personal computing, as represented by Intel and Microsoft (1993 and 1999 respectively). Second, Walmart (2002) — a perfect example of how industrial, alongside economic and technological changes, can influence company profits. Retail was no less important to the US economy in the 1950s than it is today; but Walmart’s cost-cutting strategy has insured that more of the industry’s profits are captured by a small number of companies.
在过去20年间，榜单上又出现了3个重要的变化。首先是以由英特尔(Intel)和微软(Microsoft)为代表的个人计算机行业，两家公司分别在1993年和1999年上榜。其次是于2002年上榜的沃尔玛(Walmart)——这是行业变革（与经济及技术变革一起）影响公司利润的一个完美案例。零售业在上世纪50年代对美国经济的重要性不亚于今天，但沃尔玛削减成本的战略保证了该行业的多数利润由少数几家公司把持。
Perhaps most significant was the appearance of the banks. Citigroup was the most profitable company in the US in 2002, just six years before the financial crisis.
或许最重要的变化是银行出现在榜单之列。花旗集团(Citigroup)是2002年美国最赚钱的公司，此时距金融危机爆发仅有6年时间。
But if there is one thing that should give us pause, it is the ubiquity of the oil companies at, or near, the top of the profitability rankings. Exxon and Chevron appeared on the 1955 list, and six decades later they remain.
但如果有一件事值得我们深思的话，那就是石油公司普遍处于（或接近）盈利能力排名的顶端。埃克森和雪佛龙出现在1955年的榜单上，而60年后它们依然榜上有名。
As much as the world has changed over the past 60 years, it still runs on oil.
不管世界在过去60年发生了多么大的变化，它仍然要依赖石油运转。