ABSTRACT
In Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities there is a strong emphasis on the separation of distribution from production. But somewhat paradoxically, as was pointed out in Chapter 2, this means that the prices of production depend on the wage-profit distribution. Sraffa's book was not published until 1960, but he was developing the ideas in it as early as the 1930s. At about the same time, also in Cambridge, John Maynard Keynes was writing The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. In this Keynes emphasizes the conflict between 'speculation' and 'enterprise' as an ultimate cause of stagnation in a monetized, industrial economy in which the role of finance-provider (or rentier) is separated from that of production decision-maker (or entrepreneur). Thus Keynes emphasized the possibility of a distributional conflict interfering with production and investment decisions, with the solution being euthanasia for the rentier and the state taking over the financing of investment (see Keynes, 1976, chapter 24).
