Black Magic

Like every other commodity in Europe, money is bought & sold on the black market. Through a series of "black" transactions, a man with flexible scruples can pile up a handsome profit. Required for the trick are 1) the false bottoms of inflation and 2) a well-organized international set of stooges. Last week, TIME's London bureau found a traveler who had just returned from a cheap weekend tour of the continent.

One. The monetary magician set out from London with a starting capital of -L-75 (the legal maximum which may be taken out of the country), after being well briefed by the British resident agent of an international ring. On deplaning in Geneva, he exchanged his pounds for Swiss francs at the official rate of 17 Swiss francs per pound. He picked up a silk shirt and a silver cigaret lighter, reserved one Swiss franc for carfare. Before going on to France, he handed the remaining 1,200 Swiss francs to the ring's Swiss operative (France does not permit travelers to bring more than 1,000 French francs into the country).

Two. In France, he whispered a pre-arranged code word to one of the ring's French agents, who handed him 120,000 French francs in exchange for the 1,200 Swiss francs "deposited" in Geneva. At the official rate (30 to 1) he would have got only 36,000 French francs. Thus he was 84,000 French francs ahead.

Three. The prestidigitator went on to Paris by sleeper, hired a black-market car for the day, drank black-market champagne with his black-market lunch & dinner, all of which cost him 5,000 of his black-market francs. A plane ticket to London cost another 3,000 francs. The remainder (112,000 French francs) was deposited with another of the network's stooges, who operated within a stone's throw of the Opera.

Presto! Back in London, the resident agent shelled out -L-160 in exchange for the French francs, at the conservative black rate of 700 French francs per pound (the official rate is 480 to i). On an initial investment of -L-75, the satisfied customer wound up with an -L-85 profit.

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