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What is even meant by a free market? To many people it means different things. What the desired outcome of a market place is the highest possible exchange of products and services that enhance society as a whole. Be it local or global. Where winners and losers are the result of the marketplace, period. Where manipulation by the current winners to keep innovations from seeing the light of day, are not allowed to take place.

That may be an over simplistic definition, but I think it pretty much spells out a free market. There is no perfect definition that really exists, because there are disagreements as to what exactly a free market is or even should be. Does it have controls, or does it operate completely devoid of controls? Should it contain warnings, or should it be caveat emptor? Should it be subjected to rigorous testing, or should it be limited to less stringent testing? These are just examples of the questions that are raised to determine what is a free market or even should be, and I'm sure it is not even close to being the complete list of what people view should be considered in a free market.

So to answer your question, no there has most likely never been a free market, only varying degrees of market freedom.