What is the black market? Increasingly relevant in national economies and transnational flows of capital, the black market has been defined as the space where informal, illegal, shadow and generally unsanctioned economic activities take place beyond and against the purview of the state; yet on the other hand it is also said to be more efficient and effective than the official market precisely because it is not subjected to excessive regulation. This course aims at highlighting the genealogy, workings and effects of the black market on local, national and transnational economies. Firstly, it provides the tools to read the black market in relation to the state through an analysis of the informal economy in capitalist and socialist economies. Secondly, it studies transnational markets of drugs, weapons, organs and commodities. Lastly it focuses attention on how what was once seen as a peripheral phenomenon is occupying an ever more central role in the economy at large, thus becoming the backbone for the viability of some national economies.