This is the traditional definition of markets in the field of economics, called more generally by Amartya Sen, an exchange-entitlement economy. In a market system one's entitlements to resources is a function of what one is able to exchange for those resources -- labor, money, property, etc.  Most of the world has been organized in such a way for only the past 150 years or so, although the "Anglo" parts of the world go back a bit further.  Up until then, merchant activity, even in money/trade centers such as Genoa and Amsterdam, was a fringe activity that had little to do with how 95% of people got what they needed to live.