Keynes and Sraffa on own-rates: a present-day misunderstanding

Scholars, who in recent years have studied the Sraffa papers held in the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, have concluded from Sraffa's critical-though unpublished-observations on Chapter 17 of Keynes's General Theory that he rejected Keynes's central proposition that the rate of interest on money may come to 'rule the roost', thus dragging the economy into recession. While Sraffa does express dissatisfaction with Chapter 17, the commentators have, we believe, misunderstood his concern: we suggest he was unhappy with Keynes's use of 'own-rates' rather than with the substance of the theory developed in Chapter 17.