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Yes, you are correct in respect with local currency. However, in my country there used to be quite vibrant currency black market instead of alcohol storing. Peo
by jan_g 17y ago
Yes, you are correct in respect with local currency. However, in my country there used to be quite vibrant currency black market instead of alcohol storing. People most often replaced all excess local currency with deutsch marks. At the expense of exorbitant fees, of course. But it was still better to have some deutsch marks than none.
All of it was of course illegal, but the government wasn't too keen to penalise such behaviour. At least I don't remember anyone getting caught.
- idlewords 17y agoIt depends on the country and the time period. There were stretches of time in Poland when being caught with a substantial amount of foreign currency would have meant heavy jail time (for the crime of 'speculation'). But no one in history has ever gone down for having too much hooch.
- jan_g 17y agoI'm talking about Yugoslavia and 80s. Borders were officially quite tight (you couldn't import anything beyond some small value), but lots and lots of people used illegally traded foreign currency to buy food, clothes, toys, computers(yes, you could not buy zx spectrum in Yugoslavia), etc. and bring it illegally over the border. It is likely that things were different in 70s and even before that, because rules relaxed a bit in the 80s.
- kd5bjo 17y agoBut no one in history has ever gone down for having too much hooch. Except for the United States in the 1920s.
- jrockway 17y agoThey went down on not paying income tax on the proceeds of selling that hooch. If they just had it in a closet somewhere, it is doubtful that the government would ever find out.
- kd5bjo 17y agoThat's how they got the higher-ups in the organization, but lots of people were arrested for simply having it. That's what allowed a black market to form in the first place.