Piero Sraffa and the Project to Publish Saint-Simon’s Works

Why did Piero Sraffa (1898-1983), one of the most important economists of the twentieth century, make such extensive use of the Saint-Simonian texts, and with what end? And to what extent does Sraffa’s evident interest underline the continuing relevance of Saint-Simonianism, including in economics? This paper determines the exact parameters of Sraffa’s engagement with Saint-Simon. Two particular moments are identifiable: <br>- the first comes in the lectures that Sraffa, an Italian emigrant, gave in Cambridge from 1928 to 1931, authorized and protected by Keynes; <br>- the second, which is more uncertain as regards the dates, concerns the project to publish the works of Saint-Simon, which seemed to have consumed most of Sraffa’s energies from end of the 1950s and into the 1960s.<br>