The underlying conditions for the creation of a black market in France came with the erosion of supply and the advent of scarcity following the fall of France in June 1940. Hoarding by civilians occurred on a massive scale. Scarcity was compounded by the British blockade of supplies of vital imports from overseas, such as coal and fuel. Economic control measures, rationing, and price controls introduced by both Vichy (the puppet French government) and the Germans in autumn 1940 gave new impetus to hoarding. Under these conditions, controlled prices soon bore little relation to real prices, and many manufactured products were moved onto the black market. The data and analysis provided in this article suggest that Germany's political and military domination did not extend to automatic economic submission. The evasion of economic control, especially of goods and purchases in the countryside, continued as an effective form of denial of access to hidden economic resources, which in turn increased the costs of occupation for the German military. 1 table and 127 notes