The "free market" is a trope. It's held out as a kind of ideal, but it's not likely to ever come to be.

Just look at the history of modern capitalism. It was founded via cronyism, through these trading companies that basically helped establish imperialism. These trading companies were chartered by monarchs, and did their business supplying smaller businesses.

Check out the history of the East India Company. https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company

That's early capitalism.

Capitalism is cronyism.

It has always been cronyism. It's also always been racist. It's also always been imperialist and sought to take over other countries for some European country that financed them.