"Aren't guilds or syndicates essentially inevitable in a market that does nothing to restrain them?" no. this is an inversion of fact and reality. such things evolve and sustain themselves only in the presence of government interventions. consumer sovereignty prevents oligopolistic behavior outside that from becoming predatory. even having, say, 3-4 big companies competing in a space drives prices down and quality up to the very near approximation of perfect competition, especially when others may enter the market if there are "excess profits." i think you have this exactly backwards. unregulated free markets are what prevent guilds and syndicates. they are creates of regulation and rules, not emergent economics. try naming 3 durable monopolies in free markets that have shown durable ability to extract excess profits.