BLACK MARKET, HYPERINFLATION, AND HUNGER: GREECE 1941-1944

This article deals with the operation of markets during the famine and food crisis that occurred in occupied Greece in the period 1941-1944. Among other factors, the division of the country into three zones of occupation between which no movements of goods and people was allowed and the failed attempt by the government to control prices and production led to the collapse of the normal markets and the gradual but firm establishment of a black market. In the later years of the occupation, and in association with a rampant inflation, the black market was extremely volatile and heavily dependent on “shocks.” Even though the occupation governments, the press, the resistance, and post-war academics fiercely condemned the black market, oral evidence shows that virtually everyone was involved in some way in its dealings.