Andrew Konove
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520293670
- eISBN:
- 9780520966901
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293670.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
For more than three hundred years, Mexico City’s Baratillo marketplace was synonymous with crime, vice, and the most disreputable elements of urban society. Despite countless attempts to disband it, ...
More
For more than three hundred years, Mexico City’s Baratillo marketplace was synonymous with crime, vice, and the most disreputable elements of urban society. Despite countless attempts to disband it, the Baratillo persevered, outlasting Spanish colonial rule and dozens of republican governments. In the twentieth century, transformed the neighborhood of Tepito it into a global hub of black-market commerce. Black Market Capital argues that the Baratillo and the broader shadow economy—which combined illicit, informal, and second-hand exchanges—have been central to the economy and the politics of Mexico City since the seventeenth century. The Baratillo benefited a wide swath of urban society, fostering unlikely alliances between elite merchants, government officials, newspaper editors, and street vendors. Vendors in the Baratillo turned their market’s economic appeal into political clout, petitioning colonial and national-era officials and engaging in the capital’s public sphere to defend their livelihoods. Using records from municipal and national archives in Mexico City, newspapers, travelers’ accounts, and novels, Black Market Capital reconstructs the history of one of Mexico City’s most enduring yet least understood institutions. It provides a new perspective on the relationship between urban politics, the informal economy, and public space in Mexico City between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries.Less
For more than three hundred years, Mexico City’s Baratillo marketplace was synonymous with crime, vice, and the most disreputable elements of urban society. Despite countless attempts to disband it, the Baratillo persevered, outlasting Spanish colonial rule and dozens of republican governments. In the twentieth century, transformed the neighborhood of Tepito it into a global hub of black-market commerce. Black Market Capital argues that the Baratillo and the broader shadow economy—which combined illicit, informal, and second-hand exchanges—have been central to the economy and the politics of Mexico City since the seventeenth century. The Baratillo benefited a wide swath of urban society, fostering unlikely alliances between elite merchants, government officials, newspaper editors, and street vendors. Vendors in the Baratillo turned their market’s economic appeal into political clout, petitioning colonial and national-era officials and engaging in the capital’s public sphere to defend their livelihoods. Using records from municipal and national archives in Mexico City, newspapers, travelers’ accounts, and novels, Black Market Capital reconstructs the history of one of Mexico City’s most enduring yet least understood institutions. It provides a new perspective on the relationship between urban politics, the informal economy, and public space in Mexico City between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries.
Bryce Evans
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719089510
- eISBN:
- 9781781707531
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089510.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
The department of Supplies represented the apogee of centralised state intervention in Irish history, coming to control the production, distribution, and pricing of all commodities during this time ...
More
The department of Supplies represented the apogee of centralised state intervention in Irish history, coming to control the production, distribution, and pricing of all commodities during this time of crisis. This is the first critical analysis of the department’s successes and failures and its impact upon ordinary people during this period. It details how a comprehensive system of rationing was implemented too late in Ireland, by which time the culture of the black market had achieved hegemony in defiance of the state’s periodic and often contradictory issuing of price control orders. It explores the ‘war’ on the black market declared by Lemass and Leydon and finds that this worthwhile assault in the name of the common good often involved dubious means. Charting the bureaucratic expansion of the state at a time of severe shortages, it concludes that ultimately, the ‘dirty war’ against ‘gombeens’, racketeers and ‘spivs’ came down harshly on small-time crooks and allowed large-scale profiteers to escape punishment. Explores the operation of moral and political economy at the time.Less
The department of Supplies represented the apogee of centralised state intervention in Irish history, coming to control the production, distribution, and pricing of all commodities during this time of crisis. This is the first critical analysis of the department’s successes and failures and its impact upon ordinary people during this period. It details how a comprehensive system of rationing was implemented too late in Ireland, by which time the culture of the black market had achieved hegemony in defiance of the state’s periodic and often contradictory issuing of price control orders. It explores the ‘war’ on the black market declared by Lemass and Leydon and finds that this worthwhile assault in the name of the common good often involved dubious means. Charting the bureaucratic expansion of the state at a time of severe shortages, it concludes that ultimately, the ‘dirty war’ against ‘gombeens’, racketeers and ‘spivs’ came down harshly on small-time crooks and allowed large-scale profiteers to escape punishment. Explores the operation of moral and political economy at the time.
Bryce Evans
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719089510
- eISBN:
- 9781781707531
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089510.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
This chapter provides the ‘bottom up’ story of material survival during Ireland’s wartime experience. It reveals a comprehensive social geography of price differentiation, black market hotspots, and ...
More
This chapter provides the ‘bottom up’ story of material survival during Ireland’s wartime experience. It reveals a comprehensive social geography of price differentiation, black market hotspots, and travel and retail disparities. While recounting stories of hardship has become somewhat hackneyed post-Angela’s Ashes, this chapter employs new oral evidence to convey the harshness of life in Ireland at the time, particularly in her western peripheries where the threat of starvation – one hundred years old – returned once more. Contrasting life in urban and rural contexts, it takes the novel approach of exploring the interaction of ordinary people with the state’s system of supply and distribution and reveals how an alternative system, or ‘moral economy’, operated in defiance of legal and institutional checks intended to ensure equitable distribution and fair price. It provides a case study of the operation of Irish co-operatives at the time and reveals large-scale black market activity across sections of society.Less
This chapter provides the ‘bottom up’ story of material survival during Ireland’s wartime experience. It reveals a comprehensive social geography of price differentiation, black market hotspots, and travel and retail disparities. While recounting stories of hardship has become somewhat hackneyed post-Angela’s Ashes, this chapter employs new oral evidence to convey the harshness of life in Ireland at the time, particularly in her western peripheries where the threat of starvation – one hundred years old – returned once more. Contrasting life in urban and rural contexts, it takes the novel approach of exploring the interaction of ordinary people with the state’s system of supply and distribution and reveals how an alternative system, or ‘moral economy’, operated in defiance of legal and institutional checks intended to ensure equitable distribution and fair price. It provides a case study of the operation of Irish co-operatives at the time and reveals large-scale black market activity across sections of society.
Julio Jorge Elias
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035651
- eISBN:
- 9780262337915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035651.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Economic efficiency is a criterion commonly used in economic analyses to establish an order of preference between different policy alternatives. However, in many societal situations where decisions ...
More
Economic efficiency is a criterion commonly used in economic analyses to establish an order of preference between different policy alternatives. However, in many societal situations where decisions on policy are made it would seem that this criterion is not the one most often prevails. This paper examines a disgust or repugnance factor, and examines how this factor operates as a restriction on certain transactions in the market and the consequences of these restrictions. This repugnance concept, developed by Al Roth (2007), suggests that some transactions, such as the purchase and sale of kidneys for transplants are illegal simply because a sufficient number of people find it repugnant. This paper demonstrates that the level of the repugnant reaction depends on circumstances and is closely associated with the social cost imposed by the development, prohibition or regulation of a kidney transplant market.Less
Economic efficiency is a criterion commonly used in economic analyses to establish an order of preference between different policy alternatives. However, in many societal situations where decisions on policy are made it would seem that this criterion is not the one most often prevails. This paper examines a disgust or repugnance factor, and examines how this factor operates as a restriction on certain transactions in the market and the consequences of these restrictions. This repugnance concept, developed by Al Roth (2007), suggests that some transactions, such as the purchase and sale of kidneys for transplants are illegal simply because a sufficient number of people find it repugnant. This paper demonstrates that the level of the repugnant reaction depends on circumstances and is closely associated with the social cost imposed by the development, prohibition or regulation of a kidney transplant market.
Sagi Schaefer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672387
- eISBN:
- 9780191751332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672387.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Military History
Chapter I uncovers little studied early stages of German division on the ground, showing that crucial steps for division occurred before the first declared establishment of border barriers in 1952. ...
More
Chapter I uncovers little studied early stages of German division on the ground, showing that crucial steps for division occurred before the first declared establishment of border barriers in 1952. It underscores the weight of economic considerations and interests of the Allies and the practice of economic border guarding. The chapter shows that Western agencies were more decisive and effective in enforcing economic separation between the zones of occupied Germany. The chapter studies state agencies’ efforts to control smuggling and the black market via an analysis of the work and regulation of border-guarding organizations. It highlights the different paths of development of the official and unofficial economy and the tensions between frontier and state economic considerations.Less
Chapter I uncovers little studied early stages of German division on the ground, showing that crucial steps for division occurred before the first declared establishment of border barriers in 1952. It underscores the weight of economic considerations and interests of the Allies and the practice of economic border guarding. The chapter shows that Western agencies were more decisive and effective in enforcing economic separation between the zones of occupied Germany. The chapter studies state agencies’ efforts to control smuggling and the black market via an analysis of the work and regulation of border-guarding organizations. It highlights the different paths of development of the official and unofficial economy and the tensions between frontier and state economic considerations.
Andrew Konove
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520293670
- eISBN:
- 9780520966901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293670.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
The epilogue briefly traces the intertwined histories of the Baratillo and the neighborhood of Tepito in the twentieth century. Like many other decisions regarding the Baratillo, its move to Tepito ...
More
The epilogue briefly traces the intertwined histories of the Baratillo and the neighborhood of Tepito in the twentieth century. Like many other decisions regarding the Baratillo, its move to Tepito was supposed to be temporary. Yet the market remained, and over the decades it grew into a sprawling marketplace for second hand, stolen, contraband, and pirated goods that consumed the neighborhood. By the middle of the century, Mexico City newspapers rarely referred to the Baratillo by name; instead, they used the same disparaging language that observers had traditionally employed to describe the Baratillo for the neighborhood itself. Today, Tepito is the most famous barrio in Mexico, with a distinctive oppositional identity that is inextricably tied to its role as the epicenter of Mexico City’s black market.Less
The epilogue briefly traces the intertwined histories of the Baratillo and the neighborhood of Tepito in the twentieth century. Like many other decisions regarding the Baratillo, its move to Tepito was supposed to be temporary. Yet the market remained, and over the decades it grew into a sprawling marketplace for second hand, stolen, contraband, and pirated goods that consumed the neighborhood. By the middle of the century, Mexico City newspapers rarely referred to the Baratillo by name; instead, they used the same disparaging language that observers had traditionally employed to describe the Baratillo for the neighborhood itself. Today, Tepito is the most famous barrio in Mexico, with a distinctive oppositional identity that is inextricably tied to its role as the epicenter of Mexico City’s black market.
James Heinzen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300175257
- eISBN:
- 9780300224764
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300175257.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
Traditions of official corruption inherited from the Soviet and late Imperial eras have continued to touch Russian life since the collapse of the USSR. This study is the first archive-based, ...
More
Traditions of official corruption inherited from the Soviet and late Imperial eras have continued to touch Russian life since the collapse of the USSR. This study is the first archive-based, historical study of bribery and corruption in the Soviet Union for this period. A study of the solicitation and offering of bribes forms the heart of this research. Bribery (vziatochnichestvo)—typically defined in law as gifts in cash or in kind intended to influence public officials to the benefit of the giver—represents the paradigmatic variety of corruption. This study takes a novel approach to the phenomenon of the bribe, examining it as an integral part of an unofficial yet essential series of relationships upon which much of Soviet society and state administration relied in order to function, as it gradually became part of the fabric of everyday life. The book examines three major, related themes. The book’s first theme, “The Landscape of Bribery,” concerns the nature and varieties of bribery, while painting a sociological portrait of the people involved. Whom did prosecutors accuse of such crimes? The second major topic addresses the regime’s attempts to understand the causes of bribery, and then to wipe it out through centrally directed anti-corruption “campaigns.” “The view from below,” which examines popular perceptions and understandings of bribery, constitutes the third dimension of the study. Focusing on bribery among police, court, and other law enforcement employees, this phase explores the imprecise and shifting line that separated “acceptable” from “unacceptable” behavior.Less
Traditions of official corruption inherited from the Soviet and late Imperial eras have continued to touch Russian life since the collapse of the USSR. This study is the first archive-based, historical study of bribery and corruption in the Soviet Union for this period. A study of the solicitation and offering of bribes forms the heart of this research. Bribery (vziatochnichestvo)—typically defined in law as gifts in cash or in kind intended to influence public officials to the benefit of the giver—represents the paradigmatic variety of corruption. This study takes a novel approach to the phenomenon of the bribe, examining it as an integral part of an unofficial yet essential series of relationships upon which much of Soviet society and state administration relied in order to function, as it gradually became part of the fabric of everyday life. The book examines three major, related themes. The book’s first theme, “The Landscape of Bribery,” concerns the nature and varieties of bribery, while painting a sociological portrait of the people involved. Whom did prosecutors accuse of such crimes? The second major topic addresses the regime’s attempts to understand the causes of bribery, and then to wipe it out through centrally directed anti-corruption “campaigns.” “The view from below,” which examines popular perceptions and understandings of bribery, constitutes the third dimension of the study. Focusing on bribery among police, court, and other law enforcement employees, this phase explores the imprecise and shifting line that separated “acceptable” from “unacceptable” behavior.
Etsuko Takushi Crissey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824856489
- eISBN:
- 9780824875619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824856489.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Arriving in the U.S., women interviewed recalled worrying about leaving their parents and lacking English proficiency. They were impressed with the continent’s size compared to Okinawa Island and ...
More
Arriving in the U.S., women interviewed recalled worrying about leaving their parents and lacking English proficiency. They were impressed with the continent’s size compared to Okinawa Island and with America’s affluence. Yet some were disappointed that their husbands’ living standards fell short of what they’d seen in Hollywood movies. During the late 1940s and early 1950s women struggling to survive and support their children in Okinawa went into black marketing of commodities from Army post exchanges. One interviewee married the soldier who had been supplying her. When asked what had initially attracted them to their husbands, one woman recalled that, while she had hated Americans after the war, the soldiers she met impressed her with the courteous, gentle, and caring attitude they displayed toward women. Another remembered Americans as neatly groomed, smelling of soap, and well dressed in crisply starched uniforms. Some parents vehemently opposed their daughters’ marriages, even threatening to beat or disown them. But they later relented with the birth of their grandchildren, offering material and moral support to the family. As of 2010 there were at least thirty-eight Okinawa prefectural associations in the U.S., most founded by the wives of American soldiers they had met in Okinawa.Less
Arriving in the U.S., women interviewed recalled worrying about leaving their parents and lacking English proficiency. They were impressed with the continent’s size compared to Okinawa Island and with America’s affluence. Yet some were disappointed that their husbands’ living standards fell short of what they’d seen in Hollywood movies. During the late 1940s and early 1950s women struggling to survive and support their children in Okinawa went into black marketing of commodities from Army post exchanges. One interviewee married the soldier who had been supplying her. When asked what had initially attracted them to their husbands, one woman recalled that, while she had hated Americans after the war, the soldiers she met impressed her with the courteous, gentle, and caring attitude they displayed toward women. Another remembered Americans as neatly groomed, smelling of soap, and well dressed in crisply starched uniforms. Some parents vehemently opposed their daughters’ marriages, even threatening to beat or disown them. But they later relented with the birth of their grandchildren, offering material and moral support to the family. As of 2010 there were at least thirty-eight Okinawa prefectural associations in the U.S., most founded by the wives of American soldiers they had met in Okinawa.
