[whatshisface]

>no markets--free, 'naturally-forming', or otherwise--are devoid of rules, whether they be implicit (e.g., dollars as trading medium, refrain from taking by force, etc.) or explicit (e.g, trading hours are 9-5).

9-5 trading hours are not a rule of US markets. If there was demand for trading at 8, people would organize to do that - and in fact they have, it's called after-hours trading.

Dollars as a trading medium is also an example of a non-rule. In a free market, all currencies would be lawful for transactions. In fact, in the US companies are free to sign contracts that numerate quantities of money in any currency. The only legal privilege of the dollar is its role in taxation - hardly an aspect of the free market.

Finally, the rule against taking by force is enforced by the executive branch of a democratically elected government. It is not possible to call that a free-market mechanism. A free-market mechanism for security exists, it's where you hire rent-a-cops, or in third world countries, where you hire mercenaries.

[clairity]

so is your argument that those off-the-cuff examples are not really rules because they're arbitrary or fuzzy (like every other rule, convention, or custom)?

the point is that there is no real world 'free market' that meets your idealized (and arbitrary) conditions.

[whatshisface]

Yeah, of course there's no real world free market. It's a theoretical idealization that we wouldn't even want to exist in reality.