In Britain, the institutions that build and maintain lighthouses vary from place to place. In England and Wales, they are the Pilots Association, in Scotland, they are the Northern Lighthouse Committee, and in Ireland, they are the Irish Lighthouse Committee. The funds of these institutions are allocated by the Lighthouse General Foundation managed by the Ministry of Commerce. The source of income of the fund is lighthouse tax paid by shipowners. The pilot association is responsible for the payment and report management of lighthouse tax, and the tax collection is completed by the port tax bureau. In addition, the Lighthouse Advisory Committee (a shipping association representing shipowners, marine insurance companies and shippers) also plays an important role. The lighthouse organization should consider the opinions of the lighthouse Committee when preparing the budget and whether the Ministry of Commerce passes the budget.
At present, the lighthouse system in Britain is determined by historical evolution, and its evolution history is very helpful for us to understand the supply of public goods. Coase mainly introduces the historical evolution of lighthouse system in England and Wales. The evolution of this system has mainly gone through three stages:
The secretary of the navy and the pilots association are responsible. /kloc-At the beginning of the 6th century, there were almost no lighthouses in Britain, but there were various navigation marks. The secretary of the navy is responsible for managing these navigation marks and providing beacons. In 1566, the pilots' association is given the power to provide and manage navigation AIDS, and also supervises the management of private navigation AIDS. 1594 the secretary of the navy handed over the management of buoys and beacons to the pilots association. It can be said that although there is no lighthouse at this time, the navigation AIDS that play a similar role as lighthouses are provided by the government and the Pilotage Association.
Pilots' Association and private construction of lighthouses. /kloc-At the beginning of the 7th century, the Helmsman's Association set up lighthouses in castel and Lostoff, but the Helmsman's Association turned a deaf ear to the demands of the captains, shipowners and fishermen to build lighthouses. It was not until the end of the century that it built another lighthouse. Because the Pilots Association neglected the construction of lighthouses, it gave private people the opportunity to build lighthouses. During the period from 16 10 to 1675, the Pilotage Association did not build lighthouses, but at least 10 lighthouses were privately built. Therefore, the construction of the lighthouse is in a situation of two competing ends. On the one hand, the Pilots' Association tries to maintain its only authoritative position in the construction of lighthouses and opposes the private construction of lighthouses. On the other hand, the builders of lighthouses built lighthouses for their own benefit.
In order to avoid infringing on the legitimate rights of the pilots' association to build lighthouses, private individuals obtained a patent right from the king. Later, the right to operate lighthouses and collect royalties was granted to individuals by congressional decrees. The use fee of the lighthouse shall be charged by the agent at the port where it is located to the ships passing through the lighthouse. At the same time, in order to keep power and make money, the Pilots' Association also applied for the patent right to operate the lighthouse, and then leased it to private people who were willing to build the lighthouse at their own expense, on the condition that they were not associated with the Pilots' Association. Through such a compromise, private construction of lighthouses gained a lot of space and freedom. Coase gave an example to illustrate this situation. In the past, people thought it was impossible to build a lighthouse on Edie Si Tong Reef, but in the pursuit of maximizing private interests, Henry winstanley became the first person to eat crabs and built the first lighthouse on 1699. The lighthouse was washed away by a big storm on 1703, causing heavy casualties. Although it is so dangerous to build a lighthouse here, it can't resist the entry of private interests. 1709, lovett and Rudyard built another lighthouse, but it was destroyed by a fire. Since then, the new lighthouse has been built by private people.
Coase pointed out that if we look at the lighthouse construction at the beginning of 19 century, we can understand the important role played by private individuals and private organizations in the lighthouse construction in Britain. According to the report of 1843, there are 56 lighthouses in England and Wales, of which 14 are operated by private individuals or private organizations. In the case of 1820, 24 lighthouses are operated by the Pilots' Association and 22 are operated by private individuals or private organizations. Among the 24 lighthouses operated by the Pilots' Association, 65,438+02 were taken over by the Pilots' Association when the lease signed with private individuals expired, and 65,438+0 was transferred by Chester Council in 65,438+0,865,438+06. That is to say, among the 46 lighthouses in 1 820, 34 lighthouses are privately built, with only 46-30 lighthouses.
Through the history of this stage, we find that private people are not unable to provide lighthouses because of the difficulty in charging, as economists expected. On the contrary, the private sector plays an extremely important role in Britain's lighthouse. D·A· Stevenson wrote: "Before 1806, it leased the right to build a lighthouse to the lessee whenever possible ..."
Pilots' Association buys private lighthouses. 1822, a small special committee of the British House of Commons put forward a proposal, suggesting that pilotage associations buy private lighthouses. The reasons are: unreasonable lighthouse management, such as different management institutions, different lighthouse tax rates, different collection principles and so on; Lighthouses are very important to the British navy and commerce, and management should be strengthened, not allowed to drift; It is unreasonable to tax the shipping industry, which will lead to unfair competition with other countries' shipping. Therefore, the lighthouse tax should be reduced to the lowest level suitable for managing existing lighthouses and floating lighthouses, or building and managing new lighthouses necessary for national commerce and shipping. [9] Therefore, the Pilots Association began to buy some private lighthouses. Until 1842, there were no privately owned lighthouses in Britain.
Coase questioned this proposal, in particular, he questioned that unified management of lighthouses could reduce lighthouse taxes in any way. Facts have indeed proved that the lighthouse tax has not been reduced after the loan of 1848 was paid off. This runs counter to the original intention of this proposal.
Establishment of Lighthouse Fund: 1853 A commercial fund is established, which is provided by lighthouse tax and a certain amount of other funds. 1898, the Commercial Ocean Fund was cancelled and the General Lighthouse Fund was established, which is now the lighthouse system in Britain.
In The Beacon of Economics, although Coase did not clearly show the theory of social continuity, we can still see his methodological presupposition from the evolution of the British lighthouse system. Mill, Sidvik, Pigou and Samuelson's views on public goods actually stand at one extreme, that is, lighthouses, as public goods, can only be provided by the government, and private people cannot provide them for various reasons. However, the British lighthouse system shows that "early history shows that contrary to the belief of many economists, lighthouse services can be provided by private individuals". But Coase did not jump to the other extreme at this time, that is, he overemphasized that lighthouses could only be provided by private individuals. On the contrary, he told us that at some stage, the British lighthouse system was built and operated by the government, the pilotage association and the private sector through negotiation and compromise. Through Coase's explanation, we can understand that there are no pure public goods, and it is impossible for any government or individual to try to monopolize the supply of public goods.