Piero Sraffa’s ‘Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities’ and the Rehabilitation of Classical and Marxian Political Economy

Abstract

Sraffa’s book (1960) is distinctly peculiar. It is subtitled a ‘prelude to a critique of economic theory’, though no economist later than Marshall is cited and few hints as to what this critique consists of are given. Furthermore, there is no explicit suggestion that the framework in which the analysis is presented might have a positive role in any reformulation. The assumptions on which the conclusions rest are not systematically presented but are scattered throughout the text and appendices. Moreover, these assumptions do not contain a statement of the institutional structures to which the analysis relates. There is, for example, no assumption pertaining to economic agents. In particular, there is no specification that producers maximise profit, that consumers choose rationally and there is no reference to demand or supply relations. Conclusions are frequently drawn from a reasoning which is not only terse, but in itself inadequate, when judged by the standards of proof generally demanded by economic theorists. The mathematical exposition is often expressed in terms now no longer used, even though the preface acknowledges the author’s indebtedness to a number of distinguished mathematicians, and Sraffa has expressed the view that economic theory can be, and should be, constructed with absolute precision.1