BLACK BOURSE. - The buying and selling of goods in violation of rationing laws and at a price considerably higher than the official one or than what is considered normal.
The black market is an immoral phenomenon, typical of wartime periods and of economic emergency. Its causes are the privations of the present, the uncertainty of the future, the instability of the purchasing power of a currency, excessive rationing, the overly pronounced disproportion between the overall volume of rationed and price-controlled goods and the elementary needs of the members of a community; and even more so the selfishness that takes concrete form in the withholding of indispensable goods for the purpose of extortionate speculation or to satisfy secondary needs. The effective social-mindedness of a people in fact finds its infallible index in the existence or non-existence of the black market and in the proportions it assumes in times of hardship.
The repressive measures enacted by the various States against the black market are in direct relation to the social sense of the respective peoples. When the manifestations of the black market are limited in number, it is not difficult to prosecute them criminally and to strike at them effectively, also for the reason that in such a situation they already find a severe condemnation in the conscience of the citizens. If, on the other hand, they are numerous and richly graduated, their effective repression becomes arduous and almost impossible. In this second hypothesis, since all the relationships of coexistence are thrown into disorder, and especially the economic ones, it becomes extremely difficult to determine the degree of immorality of the black market, which, having become the common practice of the great majority of citizens, often ends up assuming the appearance of an ordinary measure of legitimate self-defense.