ABSTRACT
In the preface to his Production of Commodities (1960), Sraffa revealed his dual objectives in that work (subtitled 'Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory'): one was a return to the approach of the old classical economists from Adam Smith to Ricardo, and the other was to provide the basis for a critique of marginalist theory. A unique and impressive feature of the book is that he develops a set of basic propositions designed to serve both these tasks and they effectively reveal the contrasting structures and standpoints of the two theoretical-'classical' and 'marginal'- approaches.
