Compared with the Sraffa-type price equations, the intertemporal price system showsseveral differences, from the dating of relative prices and their ‘discounted’ form, to the (apparent)disappearance of profit factors. Leaving aside the question of what could be the significance oftheoretical dated prices with respect to actually observable prices, the paper will concentrate onsome analytical implications of an intertemporal price system, compared with the classical systemof normal prices. In particular, our attention will be directed to what seems to be the disappearancein the intertemporal system of a general rate of profit, replaced at first sight by the sets of own ratesof interest of the various commodities. The intertemporal system appears therefore quite opaquewith regard to profits and profit rates. In order to dissipate such opacity we will take as benchmarkthe classical theoretical framework, with the limpid picture of the origin of profits it provides. Morespecifically, we will try to assess whether in an intertemporal price system one finds a replica of thefundamental role which in the classical theory of prices is played by the conditions of production ingenerating surplus, hence profits, and whether other circumstances are relevant in this respect whichare instead peculiar of the intertemporal system. The relation within the latter between profits andown interest rates of commodities will at the same time be investigated.As is entailed by the purposes of the paper, the ‘dating’ of commodities and prices is here keptdistinct from the use which is generally made of it in neoclassical General Equilibrium Theory, andin fact we will apply it to an analytical framework of classical type. Moreover, to better detect andseparate from other factors the role of the conditions of production, we will study the extreme caseof an economy unable to produce any surplus, and whose conditions of production would thereforebe such as to generate no profits, in order to check whether the dating of prices, if compared withthe undated prices of Classical political economy, i.e. Sraffa prices, produces any difference as toprofits and relevance of the conditions of production.