Mr Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities *

Sraffa’s Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities discusses a number of traditional issues of economic theory. It is concisely written but enough information is given to allow the reader to obtain the results which are presented. The main purpose of the book is to present the foundation for a critique of the marginal theory of value and distribution. Though the relevance of Sraffa’s results for this purpose is not made explicit, keeping it in mind helps in understanding the degrees of abstraction adopted and the propositions developed by him. His earlier writings, in particular his well-known 1926 article and his Introduction to Ricard o ‘sPrinciples (1951-5) (written in collaboration with M. H. Dobb) also provide some helpful hints to his method of analysis and main propositions.