古老欧洲重获青春【《财富》杂志经典回顾，1963（节选）】

    商界当初有最充分的理由对共同市场心生恐惧，现在却成了这场新的冒险之旅最为热情的拥抱者。几年前，法国看起来就像是欧洲弱不禁风的“林妹妹”。法国的政局乱作一团，在阿尔及利亚陷入的僵局让全国上下士气低落。此外，以效率低下而臭名昭著的法国工业犹如一盘散沙，那些靠关税庇护的古老的家族企业似乎根本就不是业已复兴的德国企业的对手。然而，如今处于优势地位的，是自信满满的法国人。这种自信，是1914年以来所未曾见过的。

    显然，这中自信跟阿尔及利亚僵局的解决有很大关系。这无疑也跟戴高乐铁腕推动政治体系转型有一定的关系。但完全独立于这些因素之外的是，法国经济展现了出人意料的力量（事实上，一些商人不仅不愿意把功劳记在戴高乐头上，而且还骂骂咧咧地谴责他的“波拿巴主义”）。

    以雷诺（Renault）、西姆卡（Simca）和标致（Peugeot）为代表的法国轿车并没有被蜂拥入侵的大众（Volkswagen）和菲亚特汽车（Fiat）打垮。它们不仅在本土站稳了脚跟，而且还在出口市场上取得了显著的收获【体验法国汽车业活力的一个好办法就是尝试着准点去巴黎某个地方赴约。许多游客都知道，沿着香榭丽舍大街（the Champs Elysees）开车，从协和广场（the Place de la Concorde）驱车到凯旋门（the Arc de Triomphe）这短短一段路程，可能要花费45分钟）。

    看起来已经成为意大利蒙特卡蒂尼公司（Montecatini）和德国大公司活靶子的法国化工业现在已展翅高飞。鉴于佩希内（Pechiney）和圣戈班（Saint-Gobain）公司已经合并了其化工业务，法国化工业甚至有可能做得更好。这两家综合性公司已经成为法国复兴的先锋。在铝业地位尊崇的佩希内公司最近收购了多元化的金融制造商豪威桑德公司（Howe Sound Co.），成功抢滩美国市场。圣戈班公司自诩为世界上最古老的工业平板玻璃制造商，现在，它已在整个欧洲构建起一个强大的企业网络，不久前还在美国田纳西州开设了一家工厂。

    常驻巴黎的罗素•埃格斯为大通曼哈顿银行（Chase Manhattan Bank）提供共同市场发展方面的建议。他喜欢指出，“削减关税唯一可完全预见的结果就是它将带给我们一个惊喜。共同市场将充满了惊喜。”法国的成功就是他最为钟爱的例证。

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译者：任文科

    The business community that started out with the best reasons to be frightened now embraces the new adventure with the most enthusiasm. A few years ago France looked like the weak sister of Europe. Its politics were in disorder, its morale depressed by the impasse in Algeria. Moreover, its notoriously inefficient industry, fragmented into old, tariff-protected family firms, seemed sure to be overwhelmed by resurgent German rivals. Yet who's on top now? France--brimming with greater self-confidence than it has enjoyed since 1914.

    Obviously the liquidation of the Algerian mess had a lot to do with it. So undoubtedly did Charles de Gaulle's ruthlessly masterful transformation of the political system. But quite independently of these factors, the French economy displayed unsuspected strength of its own. (As a matter of fact, some businessmen are not only unwilling to credit de Gaulle but are positively vituperous in their denunciation of his "Bonapartism.")

    Far from being overwhelmed by invading hordes of Volkswagens and Fiats, the French cars--Renaults, Simcas, Citroens, and Peugeots--have held their own at home and made significant gains in export markets. (A good way to feel the vitality of the French auto industry is to try to get to a Paris appointment on time. As many a tourist knows, it is possible to spend forty-five minutes edging up the Champs Elysees from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe.)

    The French chemical industry, which looked like a sitting duck for Italy's Montecatini and the big German firms, has taken wing and is flying high. It promises to do even better now that Pechiney and Saint-Gobain have merged their chemical interests. These two great integrated companies have been at the forefront of the French revival. Pechiney, preeminent in aluminum, recently secured a beachhead in the U.S. by acquiring effective control of Howe Sound Co., a diversified metal manufacturer. Saint-Gobain, which proudly claims to be the world's oldest manufacturer of industrial plate glass (it was founded under Louis XIV), now has a formidable network of interests throughout Europe and opened a plant not long ago in Tennessee.

    E. Russell Eggers, who is stationed in Paris to advise on Common Market developments for the Chase Manhattan Bank, is fond of pointing out that "the only completely predictable result of a tariff cut is a surprise. The Common Market is full of surprises." France's success is his prize example.