The second key element of open trade is the establishment of free and open markets in which any enterprising person may trade, so long as they observe simple laws preventing the incursion of exploitative modalities. Therefore, no shop may be erected in these markets (although shops are permitted outside of its precincts under certain conditions), and no rent may be charged from traders nor levies taken from their trade. This does not preclude traders from contributing to the ordinary running costs of the market. Such markets are ‘endowments’ and, once established, may not be impinged upon in any way that detracts from or alters their fundamental purpose.
After a sound currency, there is probably no initiative that would have a more profound effect on the everyday life of millions of people than the institution of such markets because of the extraordinarily liberating opportunity they provide for ordinary people to go out in the morning and sell their wares at no additional cost to themselves. Modern man is oppressed by the artificially imposed necessity to lease commercial properties and pay local government rates to such an extent that this damages trade itself, damages the ability of ordinary people to engage in gainful activity, ironically rendering millions of people a burden on the welfare state due to ‘unemployment’.
Open markets while potentially depriving the state of revenue would also remove from the shoulders of an ever-decreasing pool of taxpayers the intolerable burden of a passive workforce waiting for handouts or needing coercion of various sorts into productive economic activity.
It is also vital to remember invisible, non-economic, social and community-building aspects of the market. See “Markets as social spaces”, Sophie Watson and David Studdert, a study of the Open University, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.