But he wasn't just sitting around while he waited.
Instead, he drove to a secondhand market.
The war had changed everything.
Even the rich were feeling the strain.
Take income taxes for instance:
Britain's top rate was now 99.25%—yes, ninety-nine percent!
The pinnacle of tax policy in human history.
And under such crushing taxes and rationing, many people turned to the black market for food and goods.
Which meant they needed cash—or anything they could trade.
That led to a boom in secondhand markets.
People bartered old belongings for essentials.
And in these places, you could find anything— Even a Picasso.
Pierre once read a story:
A French real estate tycoon bought a Qianlong-era vase at auction for millions.
The seller? A British family who had swapped a can of food for it during WWII—at a London flea market.
And the vase? It had sat in their kitchen for fifty years like it was nothing.
You might not trade a can of food for a beauty—
