Your religion is a false one. My guess too much Limbaugh over the years.
On free trade, I take Adam Smith’s view. Scotland could produce wine domestically at great expense in greenhouses, but it was far cheaper to import wine from France. Scotland could produce grain more cheaply because of its abundance of rain, through the miracle of free trade, exchange grain with countries who did not have Scotland’s advantages. This way there were more grain and more wine for everyone. The central government in France did not control the production or price of wine, but if they tried to take advantage, Scotland could purchase wine from Spain or Italy, or simply forgo the consumption of wine.
So free trade works in principle. Where cartels gain control of vital (vital, wine is not precisely vital) industries or supplies of raw materials, to manipulate prices or exert political pressure (like to allow them to invade neighboring countries) the principle breaks down.