black marketeers
Illicit goods dealers
Black marketeers are people who buy and sell goods illegally, typically scarce or rationed items at inflated prices.
The term evokes wartime shortages when official channels couldn't meet demand: Black marketeers made fortunes selling nylon stockings and gasoline during the war.
Today it applies to anyone trading in contraband or evading price controls.
Prohibited trade goods
- traffickingIllegal transport for profit
- smugglingIllegal covert transport
- bootleggingIllegal alcohol production/sale
- fencingCombat with blunted blades
laundering · counterfeiting · racketeering · underground · syndicate · cartel · mafia · clandestine
Limiting distribution during scarcity
- couponsRedeemable discount certificates
- shortagesInsufficient quantities available
- hoardingExcessive accumulation of goods
- ration cardsPermits for limited goods
scarcity · war economy · austerity · price controls · ration books · stockpiling · commodities · queuing
contraband
Prohibited trade goods
- traffickingIllegal transport for profit
- smugglingIllegal covert transport
- bootleggingIllegal alcohol production/sale
fencing · laundering · counterfeiting · racketeering · underground · syndicate · cartel · mafia · clandestine · kingpin
rationing
Limiting distribution during scarcity
- couponsRedeemable discount certificates
- shortagesInsufficient quantities available
- hoardingExcessive accumulation of goods
ration cards · scarcity · war economy · austerity · price controls · ration books · stockpiling · commodities · queuing · spivs
- troublemakerstroublemaker, rascals, delinquents, imps, brats
- WWII EraTuskegee Airmen, code talkers, POWs, Purple Heart recipients, Holocaust survivors
black marketeersauthorized dealers
Sellers granted official permission
franchisees · shopkeepers · chain stores · department stores
black, market, marketeer, blacks, blacker, blackest, blacken, blackened, blackening