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The purpose of this work is to analyze the Karl Polanyi’s conceptions about the pre-capitalist-markets, especially his revision of the categories of trade, money and market. In first place, we present a critical examination of the fundamental ideas of The Great Transformation, where his later reflections about pre-industrial societies are ground. Using some basic categories of the critique of political economy, we treat to show certain methodological and conceptual limits of his proposal. Then, we analyze the Polanyi’s ideas related to the features of pre-capitalist markets. We conclude that, even when the polanyian categories and reasoning need a deep revision, his merit is to propose a really historical approach about the markets; approach that until now has not received a suitable attention.