More than others, troubled times are good times for resourceful people to get rich. When the usual landmarks of a society crack, people´s morale is easily damaged. France in the 1940s is a good illustration of this: some responsible for its patrimony improved while others crumbled. The root of these upsets is linked to the occupation of the country. This was the heyday of the cartel and fraudulent practices. The black market & which consists of selling above taxes, and buying at any price & became a common system for both producers and consumers. Though considered as a safety valve, it ends up controlling everything – a veritable sort of gangrene! The image of the ´millionaire´ peasant, who got rich through the black market, springs to mind & is this a myth or reality? The kings of the black market are more frequently to be found on the merchant´s side of the fence. The band of upstarts known as BOFs, (the initials in French of the comestibles of, Beef, Eggs and Cheese), so-called because their fortunes were founded on food-based speculation, are near the top of the pile. Of course, mention must also be made of all those who profited from the liquidation of the Jews´ assets. This redistribution of the hierarchies founded on fortunes, as savage as it was sudden, marked an era.