Of course a “free market” is predicated on the assumption that a market system is some sort of natural state. Anthropological record shows that the “market exchange” as opposed to reciprocity or redistribution was an extreme minority social relation up until about 400 years ago. Markets first showed up around Aristotle’s Greece. Though – at that point it was a very tiny part of society.
Capitalism was the institutionalization of the market system as dominant social relationship. Paradoxically free markets were forced on people for centuries. Meaning, people were forced into the capitalist money market for survival.
In modern market economies the needs of the market determine social behaviour, whereas in pre-industrial and primitive economies the needs of society determine economic behaviour.
