During which period did composers begin to act as freelance agents in music?

As early as the Renaissance and Baroque Periods, composers have started to be freelance in music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart worked as a freelance composer and performer in Vienna. Joseph Haydn Haydn, also a composer, music teacher and musician made struggles as a freelancer he educated himself all throughout the process before he became well-known. Ludwig van Beethoven was also a freelance composer in Vienna.