what came first? the market or the government?

Answer 1

It is generally accepted that early man banded together into groups or tribes .. these would have some sort of tribal 'leadership' ('elders' or 'shaman' or whatever) which could be regarded as Government.

Some sort of Government (enforcement authority) is a pre-requisite for 'ownership' rights = you are not going to take goods to 'market' unless you expected to get something back :-) .. and trading between tribes would have required a means of dispute resolution.

So I would say 'Government' as in 'enforcement authority' came first.

If you mean elected Government, well (as you well know) even today many countries do NOT have elected Governments ..but they continue to trade with other countries and have internal markets

Answer 2

Since the government is the product of the market, the market preceded the government.

The market is the mechanism by which one person or group trades its goods or services for those of another person or group. A government is itself a group which is created and empowered by trading its goods and services (fire and police protection, health, defense) for the goods and services of the other group (taxes or tax-like goods and services).

It is often said that sex was the origin of the world's oldest profession, in which one group (women) traded their goods and services for those of the other group (men). Since that profession predated government by ages . . . .

Q.E.D. ; - )