It is interesting how this creates a market for an overarching market-state whose sole function is to protect free trade that would otherwise be blocked by nati

It is interesting how this creates a market for an overarching market-state whose sole function is to protect free trade that would otherwise be blocked by national-level government. Think of the Common Economic Protocol from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age - or, for that matter, how modern states arose out of what were essentially protection rackets that would prevent bandits from interfering with free trade between villages.