Constitutional Markets

This paper presents a constitutional theory of markets. Conventional economics typically models markets as collections of agents optimizing utility under constraints. Prices coordinate behavior through information transmission and incentive alignment. The constitutional perspective proposes a different interpretation. Markets are treated as constitutional systems governing admissible continuation. Within this framework, prices, contracts, property rights, regulations, norms, institutions, and currencies function as constitutional operators. Their primary role is not to optimize outcomes but to shape the continuation space available to participants. The paper introduces: constitutional markets, economic admissibility, continuation pricing, contractual continuation, market constitutions. The framework does not deny optimization. Rather, it treats optimization as behavior occurring within constitutional structures that determine which futures remain available. The central claim: Markets coordinate through admissible continuation before they coordinate through optimization.