Rent as a share of product and Sraffa’s price equations

The classical economists usually regarded rent in their analyses as a share of the gross product obtained from the use of land or a mine, which was indeed the way rent was treated in bargaining between landowner and tenant. The article revives this view of rent, proceeding from its historical basis through Smith’s analysis to arrive at Sraffa’s equations, and also examines the case of the introduction of a tax conceived as a tithe, to which Sraffa referred very briefly (Sraffa, 1960, p 55).