ABSTRACT
This chapter describes where Sraffa stood in his own constructive and interpretive work when he came across Bortkiewicz's papers in 1943. Without a clear idea of what Sraffa had himself accomplished by that time, it is impossible to understand his response to Bortkiewicz's criticism of Marx and its role in his reconstruction of the classical theory of value and distribution. The chapter provides a brief account of Bortkiewicz's essay on the 'cardinal error' in Bohm-Bawerk's theory of interest and of Sraffa's comments on it. It turns to Sraffa's detailed notes on Bortkiewicz's 'Wertrechnung und Preisrechnung im Marxschen System'. Sraffa defended Marx against some of Bortkiewicz's criticisms. The chapter assesses the importance of Bortkiewicz's contributions and Sraffa's critical disquisition on them for the latter's overall task of reformulating the classical approach to the theory of value and distribution and providing the basis for a criticism of marginalist theory.
