Sets French black-market experience in the context of recent research on black markets and economic controls in belligerent powers during the Second World War. It provides analysis of why the French case is so important and interesting, including conclusions on why black market was so extensive in France, how French policies and their enforcement alienated popular support for measures that claimed to ‘equalize sacrifice’ (and failed to do so), and the essential need for government regulation to protect property and market access to essential goods (Vichy controls failed on both counts).