ABSTRACT
Postulate that corn is the only commodity consumed by workers and that the corn-wage rate is fixed. Corn is required also as seed, and there is no other commodity or equipment necessary for the production of corn. The first step - here the present argument begins - is to introduce a variety of wage goods. Let there be a number of distinct commodities each of which is required, in a particular quantity, to be consumed by a worker, just as particular quantities of oil and fuel are required to operate a machine. The next step takes us much further. Instead of the real wage being fixed by physical necessity, the workers receive a share of the surplus. Sraffa's solution is ingenious and satisfying. He isolates those basic commodities which enter directly or indirectly into the production of all commodities and, from the technical equations which show how each enters into the production of the others.
