In 1989 Francis Fukuyama famously and prematurely wrote(过早地断言) that the world was seeing “the total exhaustion(耗尽，枯竭) of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism”. A decade later Henry Hansmann and Reinier Kraakman, two American law professors, made a similar argument about the way companies are run. The world was converging on a superior model of shareholder capitalism, they argued: firms subordinating the interests of capital to managers, workers and states would soon crumble like the Berlin Wall.(他们认为，世界正趋同于更优越的股东资本主义模式：那些将资本利益从属于管理者、工人和国家的公司，会很快像柏林墙一样倒塌。)
1989年，弗朗西斯·福山著名且过早地写道，世界正在目睹“西方自由主义可行的系统性替代方案的彻底枯竭”。十年后，两位美国法学教授亨利·汉斯曼和赖尼尔·克拉克曼就公司运营方式提出了类似论点。他们认为，世界正趋同于一种更优越的股东资本主义模式：那些将资本利益从属于管理者、工人和国家的公司，很快会像柏林墙一样倒塌。
Like Mr Fukuyama’s work, “The End of History for Corporate Law” takes a beating(遭受批评/打击) every time liberal capitalism fails, as it did in 2008, or its elites announce that firms should serve all of society rather than just their shareholders, as they did most energetically around 2020. Yet the essay’s thesis has by and large(大体上，总的来说) proved correct. Governments in Europe and Asia have been endeavouring(努力，尽力) to make their corporate rules more “shareholder friendly” in the image of America. The ascent(兴起，上升) of private equity is but a vast exercise in imposing shareholder supremacy(至高无上，霸权).
与福山的著作类似，《公司法的终结》每当自由资本主义失败时（如2008年），或当精英们宣称公司应该服务于整个社会而不仅仅是股东时（如2020年前后最甚），就会遭到抨击。然而，这篇文章的论点大体上被证明是正确的。欧洲和亚洲的政府一直努力效仿美国，使其公司规则更加“股东友好”。私人股本的兴起只不过是一场实施股东至上原则的广泛实践。
Look to the giants of the corporate world, however, and the picture is very different. Above a certain size the ordinary rules of governance apparently cease to apply(不再适用). Some firms reach a kind of escape velocity(逃逸速度（比喻）) where the disciplining(约束，惩罚) force of finance becomes too weak and the stakes(利害关系，赌注) for governments too high for ordinary rules. Among their ranks can be spotted not one stable vision of what companies are for, but four warring ones.(在这些公司中，可以识别出不止一种，而是四种相互冲突的企业目的愿景。)
然而，看看企业界的巨头们，情况就大不相同了。超过一定规模后，普通的治理规则显然不再适用。一些公司达到了一种“逃逸速度”，金融的约束力变得太弱，而政府面临的利害关系太高，普通规则无法约束。在这些公司中，可以识别出关于公司目的的稳定愿景不是一种，而是四种相互竞争的愿景。
This is the end. My only friend, the end
这就是终结。我唯一的朋友，终结