This is a fun paper: The Economic Organisation of a P.O.W. Camp; it is a mostly narrative account of life in various prisoner of war (P.O.W.) camps in World War 2 with an eye on the economic life of these camps.

As the author explains,

[the P.O.W. camp economy’s] simplicity renders the demonstration of certain economic hypotheses both amusing and instructive

Some highlights:

  • An extended aside on the nature of cigarettes as a currency; clipping and volatility

  • An attempt at a paper currency, the “Bully Mark”, backed by food

  • Coffee making its way from British compounds to the French and ultimately to black market cafés in Munich