On Non‐self‐replacing States

The purpose of the paper is to show why the assumption of a non‐self‐replacing state in Sraffa’s system, with single‐product industries and circulating capital, could jeopardize the role of production prices in making the reproduction of the system possible. As a result, this assumption is not a merely simplifying, but rather a ‘characterizing’ assumption, in so much as it changes in some fundamental respect the main results of the analysis. Specifically, unless self‐replacement is assumed, the laws of returns (and therefore quantity‐considerations) cannot be ignored.