原文信息：
- 标题：1968 November Letter to Limited Partners
- 发表时间：1968-11-01
- 翻译：诚明散人
- 整理：诚明散人
BUFFETT PARTNERSHIP. LTD.
610 KIEWIT PLAZA
OMAHA, NEBRASKA 68131
TELEPHONE 042-4110
November 1st, 1968
To My Partners:
致我的合伙人：
Enclosed are two copies of the Commitment Letter for 1969, one to be kept by you and one to be returned to us. You may amend the Commitment Letter right up to December 31, so get it back to us early and, if it needs to be changed, just let us know by letter or phone. Commitment Letters become absolutely final on December 31 - there can be no exceptions to this rule since I turn them over to Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. at that time.
随函附上两份1969年承诺书，一式两份，一份由你们保存，一份交还给我们。您可以在12月31日午夜之前修改承诺书，因此请尽早交还给我们，如果需要修改，可以通过信函或电话通知我们。承诺书在12月31日将成为最终版本，不会有例外，因为届时我将把它移交给Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.。
Also enclosed is a copy of our ever popular “Ground Rules” to assist you in your annual re-indoctrination.
随信还附有我们广受欢迎的“基本规则”，以帮助你进行年度再教育。
At present, the tax picture stands about as indicated in my letter of August 27th. However, there is a fair chance that one or more significant (from a tax standpoint) transactions may transpire between now and the end of the year. We will have a letter out on December 24th confirming the status of your Commitment Letter, and any material change in your anticipated tax liability will be reported to you at that time.
目前，税收情况与我8月27日的信中所述大致相同。不过，从现在到年底，很有可能会发生一笔或多笔重大交易（从税务角度看）。我们将于12月24日致函确认你们的投资承诺，届时将向你们报告预期税负的任何重大变化。
At yearend, we intend to value our eighty percent interest in Diversified Retailing Company at 7,200,000 last year and an original cost of $4,800,000. Our valuation method is consistent with that employed last year which, roughly, approximates cost plus our equity in retained earnings.
到年底时，我们打算将我们在多元零售公司80%的权益估值为880万美元。而去年为720万美元，原始成本为480万美元。我们的估值方法与去年采用的方法一致，即大致接近成本加我们在留存收益中的权益。
Our yearend valuation for our seventy percent interest in Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. will be 25 per share used last year in valuing our position to the 25 figure last year was somewhat above market value at the time, whereas the $31 price is somewhat below market quotations as I write this letter.
我们对伯克希尔哈撒韦公司70%股权的年终估值为每股31美元。正如我在以前的信中提到的，市场价格决定着少数股东权益的估值，但对控股股东权益的估值却几乎不重要。控股权估值（是商业估值，而不是股市估值）的主导因素是资产价值和盈利能力。伯克希尔哈撒韦公司在这一年里取得了重大进展，因此我们的估值从去年的每股25美元提高到了今年的31美元。你们可以注意到，去年25美元的价格略高于当时的市场价格，而在我写这封信的时候，31美元的价格略低于市场报价，由此可见市场价格对这类投资完全不重要。
Every year about this time I get some questions as to whether our “no admittance” policy is still in effect. The answer is unequivocally “yes”. This is applied across the board, and I have had to turn down spouses, children, grandchildren, etc. of present partners (I’ll leave it to you to figure out what an “etc.” of a present partner is). I don’t enjoy saying no to friends who are long-time partners, but adding new members could have a negative effect on all present partners and I certainly have no desire to say yes to some and no to others.
每年这个时候，我都会收到一些关于我们的“禁止入内”政策是否仍然有效的问题。答案毫无疑问是“是”。我们对所有人一视同仁，所以我不得不拒绝现有合伙人的配偶、子女、孙子辈等等（至于这个“等等”是什么意思，你们自己去想吧）。我不喜欢拒绝长期合伙人的要求，但增加新成员可能会对所有现有合伙人产生负面影响，我当然不想对某些人说是，对其他人说不。
We have also had some inquiries regarding the transfer of Partnership interests to trusts. This cannot be done, since the Partnership interests are not assignable and a trust would be a new partner. This decision reflects the nature of our Partnership contract, general Federal Income Tax regulations regarding partnerships, and our own particular tax letter which was issued by the Treasury Department to us in 1961, ruling that we are a partnership rather than an association taxable as a corporation.
我们还收到了一些关于将合伙企业权益转让给信托公司的询问。这是不可能的，因为合伙企业的权益是不可转让的，而信托公司将成为新的合伙人。这一决定反映了我们合伙企业合同的性质、有关合伙企业的一般联邦所得税法规，以及财政部1961年向我们发出的特定税务函，该函裁定我们是合伙企业，而不是应作为公司纳税的组织。
Results this year continue to be better than I expected. Despite unusually large holdings of cash equivalent securities throughout much of the year and only a bare trickle of worthwhile ideas, we have managed to achieve reasonably good results measured by the old standards as well as the new ones. The Dow is currently plus about 8%, and our margin over the Dow is now somewhat wider than the 15% edge that we had at mid-year. Our backlog of potentially profitable ideas for 1969 is virtually nil.
今年的业绩继续好于我的预期。尽管在今年大部分时间里我们持有大量现金等价物，而且只有寥寥无几有价值的想法，但按照旧标准和新标准衡量，我们还是取得了相当不错的成绩。道指目前的涨幅约为8%，与年中时领先15个点的优势相比，我们现在的优势又进一步扩大了。但是我们到1969年时还存在的潜在盈利点子，几乎为零了。
Once again, I urge you to try for our “Partner of the Year” award (it’s honorary - no monetary consideration) by getting your Commitment Letter back to us promptly.
我再次呼吁大家争取我们的“年度最佳合作伙伴”奖（这是荣誉奖，没有金钱方面的考虑），请及时将你的承诺书寄回给我们。
Cordially,
Warren E. Buffett
WEB/glk