American Journal of Sociology, 1958, p.597-606

p.597 interaction between persons is an exchange of goods, material and non-material. This is one of the oldest theories of social behavior, and one that we still use every day to interpret our own behavior

p.598 An incidental advantage of an exchange theory is that it might bring sociology closer to economics... Economics studies exchange carried out under special circumstances and with a most useful built-in numerical measure of value. [JLJ - for example in playing a game, what we exchange with our opponent are positions composed of pieces making threats, where we think that we have good future potential (foreseen or just speculated) and that of our opponent has minimimized potential. Back and forth we go making moves, each player trying to make something out of a position presented to us by our opponent as the one we are least likely to transform into an advantage. We exchange challenges to solve puzzles - "here, try to make something out of this position. I'm going to oppose your efforts by minimizing your opportunities to do so. As we each surprise the other with unexpected moves, I think that I can make use of the unexpected connections and relationships that emerge in our game playing better than you can".]

p.606 Of all our many "approaches" to social behavior, the one that sees it as an economy is the most neglected, and yet it is the one we use every moment of our lives - except when we write sociology.