The distinction between basic and non-basic commodities plays a central role in the analysis presented by Sraffa in his Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities (1960). Thus, the conditions of production of basics are said to play an essential part in the determination of prices and the rate of profit, while those of non-basics do not; it follows, in turn, that the effects of taxes and of changes in methods of production are said to depend on whether they relate to basic or to non-basic commodities (see, for example, ibid., sections 6 and 65). It may therefore be of interest to examine rather closely the general formulation of the distinction between basics and non-basics which Sraffa presents in the course of his discussion of joint production.