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68 Piero Sraffathe system stemming from a change in their conditions of production,so that both the rate of profits and the prices of basic products remainunchanged, unless the change in their prices produces a change in theprevailing wage rate.4.4 The wage–profit relationshipBy considering the whole wage as variable, Sraffa is able to put emphasison the conflict of interests between capitalists and workers overthe distribution of the economic surplus. A higher wage corresponds(except in special cases) to a lower rate of profits. 17 With the publicationof Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities the curve thatexpresses the relationship between wages and the profit rate was broughtback into the centre of discussion in economic theory (it was renamed‘the factor-price frontier’ by neoclassical economists in an attempt toplace capital and labour on the same footing, as ‘factors of production’).The existence of a relation between wage and rate of profits is naturallyalso recognised within the marginalist tradition, but as their approachestablishes unique equilibrium values for the two distributive variables,it becomes possible to disregard any possible conflict of interest forthere exists a natural solution endowed with the desirable attribute ofoptimality. Such a solution is also equitable, since each factor of productionreceives the equivalent of its contribution to production. In distinctcontrast, Sraffa rejects the possibility of determining distribution withinthe analysis of the theory of prices, and this allows for the conflict overthe distribution of the economic surplus to be brought back into theforefront of economic analysis, though within another ‘analytic area’,distinct from the one relating to the determination of relative prices. 18The inverse relation between the wage and the rate of profits, assuggested earlier (§ 3.3), is at the centre of Ricardo’s theory and of hiscritique of Smith’s theory of prices. However, for Ricardo and his closestfollowers this proposition provides the basis for attacking the landedclasses and rents, rather than for elucidating the conflict of interestbetween capitalists and workers. The explanation lies, evidently, in the17There are no exceptions to the inverse relation between wage and rate of profitsin the case of a system of simple production, i.e., in which each industry producesa single commodity. For demonstration, see Sraffa (1960: 38–9). In the caseof a system of joint productions it is possible for the wage, measured in termsof some particular joint-products, to be positively related to the rate of profits.Again, see Sraffa (1960: 61–2).18This point is developed in Roncaglia (1993).Basic and Non-Basic Products 69fact that the wage is considered as fixed at the level of subsistence. Itis thus not from the workers that the capitalists had to defend theirincomes, but from the possibility of an increase in rents, which wouldimply an increase in the costs of production of wage-goods and thus,given technology, a reduction in capitalists’ profits. Since the classicaleconomists suppose that profits are entirely destined to accumulation,profits are also seen as originating increases in the demand for labour.There is thus a common interest that serves to link both capitalistsand workers in defending themselves from the common enemy tocapital accumulation and economic growth, the landlords. Only a fewyears after Ricardo’s death, the Ricardian socialists and some classicaleconomists (such as Torrens 1834) pointed out that there also exists aconflict of interest between capitalists and workers over the distributionof national income. This conflict occupies a central position in Marx’sanalysis, even if pride of place is reserved for the criticism of the capitalisticsystem as a whole. Sraffa’s analysis instead directly illustrates thedistributive conflict between wages and profits, which is smoothed overby marginal analysis, but which is, indeed, of fundamental importancefor an understanding of the capitalistic society. 194.5 Subsistence goods and the distinction between basicsand non-basicsIt has already been seen how consideration of the whole wage asvariable – rather than as consisting of a given subsistence componentand a variable surplus component – masks the importance of subsistencecommodities. In order to take the particular position of these commoditiesinto account, Sraffa suggests that the minimum limit of the wagerate be determined by the price of the subsistence basket of consumptioncommodities. Changes in the production conditions of subsistencecommodities would thus directly influence this minimum of the wagerate. A change in the methods of production of wage commodities19Let us recall, however, that the wage–profit curve is constructed on the basis ofa given technology and given output levels: the dynamic relationship betweenwages and profits is far more complex. Traditional marginalist theories determineequilibrium values for the distributive variables (corresponding to a pointon the wage–profit frontier) through comparison between demand and supplyfunctions for the ‘factors of production’ capital and labour. As we shall see later(Chapter 6), Sraffa criticises these theories, thus denying the existence of anequilibrium point on the wage–profit frontier. On dynamic analyses of incomedistribution in a Sraffian framework, see § 8.6.