A mode of exchange in which the price of a commodity is fixed by the relative proportions of supply and demand. The term may also be applied more specifically to the place where people come together for transactions of this sort, or the occasion on which they do so. A degree of social control is necessary, for instance, to guarantee access to the market and the security of traders, but prices are fixed independently. It usually involves a system of pricemaking through negotiation. Market has the variable meanings of a) a process of buyer-seller exchange, b) the demand for something, and c) a kind of economy.