The theory of production was at the foundation of Classical economic theory but was later pushed into a secondary and inferior position by the development of marginal theories of consumer behavior and exchange in competitive markets. However, it made a comeback once again, becoming central to some of the most exciting contemporary contributions to economic thought.

The renewal of theoretical interest in production problems arose as a consequence of the practical applications of linear programming techniques during the war. Unfortunately, linear programming soon became confined within the bounds of traditional marginal analysis and lost its power.

However, the emergence in the 1960s of a small book written by Piero Sraffa, titled Production of Commodities by means of Commodities, gave a new impetus to the economic analysis of the production process and revealed new aspects of it. Not only as a continuation of the earlier work of Classical economists but also as a critique of the dominant positions of marginal economic theory.

This method has continued to develop since then, and the present work aims to contribute to its presentation at the level of a postgraduate course. The content of this book consists of lecture notes delivered over many years at the Catholic University of Milan in Italy and at the University of Cambridge in England.

It was primarily the persistent demand of Italian students that pushed me, at different stages, to write my teaching notes. Earlier forms of some of these lectures have been circulated in Italian universities since 1956. The printed form appeared in 1975 (Lezioni di Teoria della Produzione, Soc. Ed. il Mulino, Bologna, 1975).

[Excerpt from the text of the preface]