Marché Noir

Kenneth Mouré shows how the black market in Vichy France developed not only to serve German exploitation, but also as an essential strategy for survival for commerce and consumers. His analysis explains how and why the black market became so prevalent and powerful in France and remained necessary after Liberation. Marché Noir draws on diverse French archives as well as diaries, memoirs and contemporary fiction, to highlight the importance of the black market in everyday life. Vichy's economic controls set the context for adaptations – by commerce facing economic and political constraints, and by consumers needing essential goods. Vichy collaboration in this realm seriously damaged the regime's legitimacy. Marché Noir offers new insights into the dynamics of black markets in wartime, and how illicit trade in France served not only to exploit consumer needs and increase German power, but also to aid communities in their strategies for survival.

'With immense research and compelling prose, Mouré analyzes how people of all kinds-rich and poor, rural and urban, producers and consumers, police and the policed, from Vichy officials and Nazi occupiers to Allied liberators-navigated the challenges and opportunities of France's wartime black-market economy. A superb integration of economic, social, and cultural history.' Herrick Chapman, New York University, 'Moure's compelling book on the black market focuses on a critical aspect of life in France during the German Occupation. Moure's vivid account brings his deep understanding of economics and of the war to his investigation of the black market and its profound impact on politics, economics and daily life. Vichy's failure to control and enforce a system meant to ensure basic living standards all but compelled producers, distributors and consumers to turn to the black market, widening divisions in French society.' Sarah Fishman, University of Houston, 'Mouré weaves powerful examples from a variety of sources - from police records to diaries, economic reports, and contemporary cartoons - and successfully explains the intricacies of economic factors in lay terms. This work offers a welcome and necessary addition to recent scholarship on the 'gray zone' that characterized French collaboration with Nazi Germany. … Highly recommended.' G. P. de Syon, Choice

Kenneth Mouré is Professor of History at the University of Alberta, and has taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He specializes in twentieth century French history, with particular interest in the policy responses to economic crises. His published works include Managing the Franc Poincaré (1991) and The Gold Standard Illusion (2002).