This paper provides the basis for a very general approach to the determination of initial buckling stresses of long stiffened panels in uniform longitudinal compression. The panels are assumed to consist of a series of long flat strips, rigidly connected together at their edges, as in panels with top-hat or Z-section stringers, or in sandwich panels with corrugated cores. Whatever the buckling mode, the individual flats are subjected, just after buckling, to sinusoidally varying systems of both out-of-plane and in-plane edge forces and moments, superimposed on the basic state of uniform compression. The stiffness matrices corresponding to these sinusoidal edge loads are derived, taking account of the destabilising effect of the basic longitudinal compressive stress, not only in the out-of-plane but also in the in-plane deformations. For the latter purpose a non-linear theory of elasticity is used. The application of these stiffness matrices to specific panels is briefly described. All possible modes are incorporated within one determinantal equation. For panels with identical stiffeners spaced at equal intervals, the order of the determinant is independent of the number of stiffeners.