Black Market Kaputt

Paris, basking in the fine Easter sunshine, was invaded by hordes of eager tourists. As they took in the sights or eyed the smart Parisian girls in their spring dresses, they were accosted by furtive "characters who hissed: "Have you dollars?" Most of the time, the answer was a blunt no. The bottom had fallen out of the currency black market.

Only three months ago, a U.S. dollar would fetch 530 French francs on the black market. Last week, the going rate was down to 330, about the same as the official exchange rate offered to tourists at any bank or hotel. This remarkable strengthening of the French franc was another indication that France's economy, fortified by ERP, was healthier than it had been at any time since the war.

It was the same story all over Western Europe. For years the busiest black market in Rome was sunny Piazza Colonna, just 50 yards from the heavily guarded Chamber of Deputies. One young operator sadly admitted that in two months the dollar had dropped from 711 to 614 lire (legal rate: 570). "Spring always does this to us," he rationalized. "It can't last. People are just optimistic now."

On Amsterdam's gaudy Rembrandt-plein, a money dealer known as "Kees de Dollarkoning" (Kees the Dollar King) had resorted to hawking leather wallets as a sideline. He used to get six guilders to the dollar, now offers to buy them for 3.25.

In Frankfurt, one operator, wearily toting his worn leather briefcase, which is the money dealer's badge of badge of office, mourned: "Der Schwarzmarkt ist kaputt." In Paris, a fellow sufferer announced that he would have to "go into the picture business," i.e., peddle French postcards. "Not much money in that trade," he complained, "but we have to make a living."

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