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The Black Market in Occupied Northern France, 1940–4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Lynne Taylor
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Extract

During the Second World War, the black market was an integral part of daily life in all parts of wartime Europe – occupied, collaborationist, neutral – and beyond, in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and elsewhere. Wherever nations had shifted to a controlled economy, in which supply and distribution were regulated by the government through rationing and quota systems and demand exceeded the regulated supply, the black market flourished. It was the free market at its most brutal. Prices were determined by the laws of supply and demand, adjusted to recognise and reward the enormous risks taken by suppliers in trading on the black market. It was no different in northern France.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1997 , pp. 153 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

1 Although this study focuses on the black market in northern France, its conclusions should be more broadly applicable. The advantage of using northern France is that it came under direct German military occupation, without an obscuring intermediary such as Vichy. In northern France, the enemy was obvious. This clarifies the relationships under study.

2 The numbers are based on a complex calculation of the cost of living detailed in the study by Lynne Taylor, S., ‘Le Cout de Vie: Daily Life in Northern France during the German Occupation of World War II’ (PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 1992), 167.Google Scholar

3 ibid., 174–80.

4 ibid., 173.

5 See, for example, Bernard, and Gérard Le Marec, , L'Alsace dans la guerre, 1939–1945 (Le Coteau: Editions Horvath, 1988)Google Scholar; Bouladou, Gérard, L'Hérault dans la Résistance: 1940–1944 (Nimes: LaCour, 1992)Google Scholar; Riche, Jean, La Franche-Comté sous l'Occupation allemande et sa libération (Lons-le-Saunier: Editions Marque-Maillard, 1979)Google Scholar; Chaumet, Michel, Les Deux-Sèvres dans la guerre 1939/45: La vie quotidienne sous l'Occupation (Roanne: Editions Horvath, 1985)Google Scholar; Marcot, François, Le Résistance dans le Jura (Besançon: Cêtre, 1985)Google Scholar; Brandon, Pierre, Coulisses de la Résistance à Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille et Nice (Paris: Editions l'Harmattan, 1994)Google Scholar; Terrisse, René, Bordeaux, 1940–1944 (Paris: Perrin, 1993)Google Scholar; Debon, André, La Résistance dans le Bocage normand (Paris: Editions Tirésias, 1994)Google Scholar; Chaumet, Michel and Pouplain, Jean-Marie, La Résistance en Deux-Sèvres, 1940–1944 (Geste Editions, 1994)Google Scholar; Gounand, Pierre, Dijon 1940–1944: carrefour de guerre (Besançon: Editions Franc Albert, 1990)Google Scholar; Bichet, Robert, La Résistance à Rougemont et dans la région (Langre: Dominique Gueniot, 1993)Google Scholar; Cordesse, Henri, Histoire de la Résistance en Lozère: 1940–1944 (Montpellier: Les Presses du Languedoc, 1989)Google Scholar; Sainclivier, Jacqueline, La Résistance en Ille-et-Vilaine, 1940–1944 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1993)Google Scholar; Clesse, Joël and Zaidman, Sylvie, La Résistance en Seine Saint-Denis, 1940–1944 (Paris: Syros, 1994)Google Scholar; Panicacci, J-L., La Résistance azuréenne (Nice: Editions Serre, 1994).Google Scholar

6 Kedward, H. R., In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France, 1942–1944 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).Google Scholar

7 The cases were drawn from a variety of sources, including the regular newspaper summaries of trials in the Grand Echo du Nord, cases scattered throughout the Prefectoral Records, series 1W, and, in particular, in a collection of cases contained in a folder entitled ‘Repressions du Marché Noir – rapports du Directeur du Contrôle Economique sur les transactions supérieures à 30,000f’ (‘Repressions’), 43W 39591.

8 A full 185 cases or 50% of the total sample involved food producers, and wholesalers and retailers of food and drink (99 cases in agriculture and 86 in food and drink). Those involved in trade and commerce in general, together with those involved specifically in food and drink industries, total 268 cases, or 73% of the sample.

9 Roubaix was one of three cities which had ‘grown into’ one another over the centuries, the others being Lille and Tourcoing. The three form a metropolis which dominates the region demographically and economically.

10 Letter from the Feldkommandantur 678 to the Préfet du Nord, 17 June 1944, AD Nord, 1W 911.

11 Individual file for Maurice Lixon, butcher, ‘Repressions’, 1943, AD Nord, 43W 39591.

12 Letter from the Police Economique to the Maire de Lille, 11 Nov. 1941. AD Nord, 43W 39541.

13 Individual file for Jules Verrielle, butcher, ‘Repressions’, 1945, AD Nord, 43W 39591.

14 Taylor, , ‘Le Cout de Vie’, 249.Google Scholar

15 l'Echo du Nord, 13 July 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/3).

16 Letter from the Commissaire Divisionnaire de Police Spéciale, Avesnes, to the Sous-Préfet, Avesnes, 19 Oct. 1941, AD Nord, 43W 3954.

17 l'Echo du Nord, 3 April 1941, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1941/1.

18 ibid., 18 July 1941, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1941/1).

19 Letter from the Commissaire Divisionnaire de Police aux Renseignements Généraux, Avesnes to the Sous-Préfet, Avesnes, 29 May 1942, AD Nord, 43W 39542.

20 Letter from the Sous-Préfet de Cambrai to the Préfet du Nord, AD Nord, 1W 770.

21 ibid.

22 For simplicity's sake, I use the term ‘farmer’ to refer to a group of people engaged in agricultural occupations, including 47 agrarian farmers, 28 dairy farmers, 11 cowherds (herbagers), 8 cultivateurs, 2 éleveurs, 1 farmwife, 1 proprietaire and 1 agricultural worker.

23 The number of charges exceeds the number of farmers charged because some farmers were charged with several crimes, but given a single sentence.

24 Individual file for Paul Lelieur, farmer, ‘Repressions’, 1943, AD Nord, 43W 39589.

25 Letter from the Police de Comines to the Préfet du Nord, 6 June 1942, AD Nord, 1W 222.

26 l'Echo du Nord, 28 April 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/1).

27 Letter from l'Adjudant Duchateau, Commandant la brigade de Gendarmerie, Cassel, to the Préfet du Nord, 20 May 1942, AD Nord, 1W 222.

28 Letter from the Commissariat Central de Police, Lille, to the Préfet Regionale de Lille, 20 April 1942, AD Nord, 1W 402.

29 ibid.

30 Letter from the Commissaire Central, Roubaix, to the Préfet Delegue and to the Intendant, Directeur du Ravitaillement Général, 22 March 1942, AD Nord, 1W 222.

31 Letter from Inspecteurs Bourdon et Ghesquières, le Ravitaillement Général du Nord, to the Intendant Directeur Départemental du Ravitaillement Général du Nord, 14 Oct. 1941, AD Nord, 43W 39541.

32 Letter from the Procurer de la République, Lille, to the Préfet du Nord, 19 May 1942, AD Nord, 43W 39542.

33 Letter from the Commissaire de Police Spéciale, Lille, to the Intendant Directeur Départemental du Ravitaillement Général du Nord, 10 Oct. 1941, AD Nord, 43 W 39541.

34 l'Echo du Nord, 13 Oct. 1941, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1941/4).

35 Letter from the Intendant Directeur Départemental du Ravitaillement Général du Nord to the Préfet du Nord, 16 Oct. 1941, AD Nord, 43 W 39541.

36 l'Echo du Nord, 14 Nov. 1941, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1941/4).

37 Letter from Intendant du Maintien de l'Ordre to the Sous-Préfet and the Préfet d Nord, 25 May 1944, AD Nord, 1W 1630.

38 l'Echo du Nord, 21 Dec. 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/4).

39 Letter from the Préfet du Nord to the Préfet Delegue (nd), AD Nord, 1W 1932.

40 l'Echo du Nord, 11 July 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/3).

41 ibid., 11 April 1941, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1941/2).

42 ibid., 4 Aug. 1941, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1941/3).

43 Letter from the Commissaire de Police de Comines to the Préfet du Nord, 22 Feb. 1942, AD Nord, 1W 402.

44 l'Echo du Nord, 28 Sept. 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/3).

45 Letter from the Intendant Directeur Départemental du Ravitaillement Général du Nord to the Préfet du Nord, 23 May 1942, AD Nord, 43W 39542.

46 l'Echo du Nord, 25 Oct. 1941, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1941/4).

47 ibid., 18 Jan. 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/1).

48 ibid., 21 April 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/1).

49 ibid., 23 April 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/1).

50 ibid., 24 Oct. 1942, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1942/4).

51 l'Echo du Nord, dated 14 Oct. 1943, AD Nord, Jx 247 (1943/4).

52 Individual file for Angelique Millaucourt, street vendor, ‘Repressions’, AD Nord, 43W 39588; and individual file for Gaston and Simon Bay, wine and spirits wholesalers, ibid., 1945, AD Nord, 43W 39588.

53 The post-Liberation trials of traffickers were held in an atmosphere of harsh recrimination and revenge directed against any collaborators with the German and Vichy regimes. Thus, one would have expected traffickers to be dealt with summarily and severely for having profited from the misery of their compatriots. On the contrary, although proven exploitative profiteers did suffer fully the consequences of their Occupation activity, the courts expended much effort to determine whether each case of marketeering amounted to profiteering or actually brought some benefit or relief to the community. It appears that a moral judgement was made in each case, based upon an evaluation of the profits made by the trafficker and the testimony of the local community and élite, to determine whether a crime had in fact been committed.

54 File for Leopold Soba, ‘Répressions’, 1945, AD Nord, 43W 39591.

55 File for Arthur Sottieau, ‘Répressions’, 1945, AD Nord, 43W 39591.

56 Letter from the OFK 670 to the Préfet de la Region de Lille, 31 Aug. 1941, AD Nord, 1 W 742.

57 Goris, (ed.), Belgium under Occupation (New York: Moretus Press, 1947)Google Scholar; Reimann, G., The Black Market: Inevitable Child of Statism (Hinsdale, IL: Henry Regnery, 1948)Google Scholar; Sédillot, R., Histoire des Marchés Noirs (Paris: Tallandier, 1985)Google Scholar; Marcot, F., ‘Etude régionale: La Franche-Comté’, in Azéma, J.-P. and Bédarida, F. (eds), Le Régime de Vichy et les français (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1992), 640–6Google Scholar; cf. 4.

58 Laborie, P., L'Opinion française sous Vichy (Seuil: Paris, 1990), 259–60, 280.Google Scholar

59 Marcot, , ‘Etude règionale’, 643;Google Scholar and Goris, , Belgium under Occupation, 65, 70.Google Scholar

60 Sédillot, , Histoire des Marchés Noirs, 145.Google Scholar

61 Cobb, , French and Germans, Germans and French (Hanover, MA: University Press of New England, 1983), 51.Google Scholar It is interesting that Cobb observed German participation in the black market in the Nord, for there is little evidence of such in either the available prefectoral records of the region or the surviving German records.