Estraperlo (Spain)

Estraperlo 🇪🇸
Location: Spain
Definition: Spanish black market between 1939 and the 1950s.
Keywords: Spain – EU – Trade – Black market – Smuggling – Resistance – Collusion
Author: Jesús Yániz
Affiliation: Independent scholar

By Jesús Yániz, Independent scholar

Estraperlo is a polysemic word in Spanish. Initially used to describe a famous roulette scheme that started in 1934, the term is most notably associated with the Spanish black market of the post-war autarchy, between 1939 and the 1950s. Nowadays, the concept has wider applicability as it refers to the illegal trade of state-controlled products (Real Academia Española 2021). It is often used as a synonym for chanchullo, any unlawful conduct for profit (Real Academia Española 2021). Estraperlo encompasses a variety of irregular practices including (Del Arco 2010): irregular production, hiding of the harvest, smuggling, illegal transport, product adulteration, commercialization, and consumption of state-controlled products (Román 2015; Aranda 2018). While popularly the practice went under this name, francoist authorities often referred to it as “invisible consumption”. (Barciela 2000).

The black market and practices associated with estraperlo are common all around the globe, both in times of war and in tightly controlled economies. In Venezuela it is called Bachaqueo, in Cuba Sociolismo, in Vietnam Chợ đen, in North Korea Jangmadan, Meshochnik during the Russian Civil War, and Chelnoki in the USSR.

Estraperlo is difficult to research because the phenomenon developed decades ago. There are little sources, omitted facts, and the topic was tabu for a long time (Naredo 1981). In the 1980s, the first studies focused on its economic dimension but were followed by a more historical perspective that, in the 21st century, centred on the anthropological dimension of the practice (Román 2015). The word estraperlo is the acronym of the first halves of the surnames of its two creators Strauss and Perlowitz (Real Academia Española 2021). Since 1934, they introduced rigged roulettes in a Spanish casino, with the complicity of corrupt officials. The bribing of ministers and its subsequent discovery led to the fall of the government of Alejandro Lerroux contributing to the republican instability that preceded the coup d’état of 1936. The term eventually evolved to denote the black market emerging in response to the state intervention in the economy during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939 (Del Arco 2010). However, it is the autarchy adopted by Francisco Franco’s regime that helped to spread the phenomenon (Del Arco 2010; Aranda 2018).

Prices were fixed and consumption was controlled by a system of rationing (Christiansen 2002). The consequences of this imposition found in estraperlo a survival response. As an example, in 1945, the governor of Valencia recognized that rations accounted for only half the food necessary for living (Román 2015; Aranda 2018). Estraperlo was hence a popular reaction to the state’s autarchic intervention in the economy, but also, as suggested by Naredo, a symptom of the population’s ideological opposition to autarchy itself (Naredo 1981: p109).

While quantities and prices varied across products, regions, and time, some figures are very indicative. The quantity of wheat sold through estraperlo was way above the one officially traded, while the amount of oil traded was close to the official one (Barciela 2000:196). Prices were on average 2 or 3 times higher than those of the official market, but sometimes they could reach up to 7 or even 10 times more (Barciela 2000:196; Del Arco 2010).

The practice, extended to all of Spain, was widespread in the 1940s but less diffused in the 1950s (Gómez and Del Arco 2005). In fact, the word is common to Basque, Catalan, Valencian, and Galician (Academia Valenciana de la Llengua 2021; Gobierno Vasco 2021; Xunta de Galicia 2021; Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana 2021). There was even a board game on estraperlo, which incorporated the black market, fines, and even a prison. (Del Arco 2010).

While it is true that estraperlo involved all sorts of products, there is consensus that oil and wheat were the main illegally traded goods (Christiansen 2002; Román 2019). These are products with low elasticity, meaning that when their price increases demand is not strongly affected. However, there were exceptions: in Malaga in 1944, bread was the estraperlo product most connected to arrests (Gómez and Del Arco 2005) while in Granada it was tobacco (Román 2015).

The geography of estraperlo also offers an interesting perspective. The core idea of speculation is to sell consumption products where they are the scarcest. After the war, there was a need to link the consumption centres that had remained in the hands of the Second Republic to supply regions like Andalusia (Naredo 1981). Urban-rural exchanges were the main flows of estraperlo: farming products went in one direction and imported ones, like sugar and soap, in the other (Román 2019).

Authors usually distinguish between great and small estraperlo when considering the amount of smuggled goods (Del Arco 2010). Great estraperlo dealt with great quantities of products and relied on the support of the regime (Del Arco 2010). This variant was condemned by the population, who would suffer the speculative nature of the practice (Del Arco 2010). On the contrary, the small one, also called estraperlo of the poor (Del Arco 2010), involved small quantities of products and it was the most prosecuted version. Gómez and Del Arco (2005) offer a clear picture of people prosecuted for small estraperlo in Almeria: 70% were women, 25% of which widowed, 50% had big families to take care of, 80% did not have properties. Women's participation in smuggling was so notable that it received a name of its own: matuteras (Román 2019). Yet, great and small estraperlo were two sides of the same coin: great estraperlo businessmen would often supply those of the small one (Román 2015: 109).

Estraperlo resulted in increased inequality, double standards, and solidarity. For over a decade, Spanish society would experience illegality daily and readapted its moral standards to what Del Arco (2010) calls the “Double Spain”. This situation saw the strengthening of already existing solidarity networks. Estraperlo practitioners were aided and hidden by family members, neighbours, and friends and strangers alike. (Román 2015). Yet, in parallel to this solidarity, a whistleblowing culture developed among that same community, which caused most of the arrests (Román 2015).

The regime exploited small estraperlo to portray itself as a defender of legality (Del Arco 2010). A good example of this is how in 1948, authorities organized a protest of 5,000 people against estraperlo speculators in Madrid, that ended with a speech by the Minister of Labour supporting the state’s fight against corruption (Del Arco 2010). It seemed to be an efficient strategy and most of the population believed that Franco intended to eradicate the practice (Del Arco 2010). The only death sentence resulting from estraperlo seemed an excuse to punish a man who had participated in a conspiracy against Franco (Aranda 2018). In parallel, Del Arco (2010) and Aranda (2018) also understand estraperlo as means of everyday resistance against the regime.

Estraperlo began to decline with the end of autarchy in the 1950s, although it only disappeared in 1963 (García and Barciela 1985). It was no longer profitable when state interventions in the market were reduced and goods could be traded freely. Nevertheless, we can still see its remnants in nowadays society in practices like top manta (ABC 2012), the illegal selling of products in the street on a manta (blanket). There are profitable incentives to engage in estraperlo in spheres of the market where the state still intervenes, like in counterfeit merchandise, narcotics, prostitution, and weapons. Yet, the strongest example of later estraperlo is the 1981 toxic oil syndrome, when industrial colza oil was sold in street markets to households. The word estraperlo not only did not disappear but has taken a more general meaning of illegal behaviour for profit.

References

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