As soon as people learned to grow grain, and their numbers increased a thousandfold in a short period of time as a result, effects arose that led to the emergence of the market. The effects arose because human life, especially in the cities that emerged during this boom, began to consist of daily encounters with a huge number of strangers. Relations with them could no longer be regulated by previous life experience, and life experience itself became completely different. The traditions of the tribe, which had once covered all the situations a person might encounter during his life, no longer helped, since the number of new situations themselves increased significantly.
The accumulation of people enabled the exchange of surpluses, and here, one might say, the market appeared. That is, as soon as someone got the idea to offer their product to all who wanted it, including strangers, the market appeared.
Since then, all of humanity has existed “with the market.” At different times and in different countries, the market differs only in how far it is used, and how far people (usually in the form of states) allow the market to play its role.
It is very important to understand that the role of the market is not limited to what is usually understood as “economic activity.” Rather, this activity is merely one of the components of the market. In fact, any human activity finds its reflection in what is called “the market.” Sustenance, clothing, housing, romantic courtship, luxury and whims, profit and disinterestedness — all these are the forces that “move the market.”
A consequence of this simple observation is the fact that the very word “market,” denoting only a place for retail trade in final commodity products, does not at all reflect the phenomenon it denotes.