Besicovitch, Sraffa, and the existence of the standard commodity

This chapter explores the relationship between the proof of the existence of the Standard commodity contained in section 37 of Sraffa’s book and the proof Besicovitch supplied to Sraffa on 21 September 1944, and investigates the completeness and consistency of it. It also postulates some reasons that led Sraffa to omit this proof in his book in favour of an argument, which the subsequent literature has qualified as incomplete. The chapter sheds some additional light on the issue of the proof of the existence of the Standard commodity from an historical perspective.