The free market is not a primary value, but a consequence of another value. It's a consequence of a deeper philosophy that states that an individual is the owner of his own life, the best person to decide how to live it, and that what he earns by his skills and efforts are his property to dispose of as he wishes. That's an oversimplification, but the gist is there.
In a free system, trade, cooperation, and economic activity are voluntary, and force and fraud are considered criminal.
Free-market capitalism is the only economic system consistent with the philosophy of individual rights. All others require force. It also, by distributing decisions to those best qualified to make them, works better than anything else.
Almost all the problems associated with capitalism by its enemies are connected with attempts to subvert the market by means of force, usually (but not always) applied by a government. It's interesting to go over this on a case-by-case basis, but there are books that do it better.
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re: "From each according to his ability..."
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