To the extent that the definitions of the economy presented so far have made any statements at all about the scope of this concept, they have always addressed—albeit with varying degrees of emphasis—the interconnectedness of production, distribution and consumption of social wealth. Some authors see this interplay as the common point of reference of economic theory or, more precisely, its subject matter. Yet, how production and distribution are socially regulated has varied historically. The economic anthropologist Karl Polanyi has identified three “pure” modes of distribution: reciprocity, redistribution and exchange.