Term for War profiteers?

[chelm]

What were the people who profited from the 2nd world war called other than profiteers? didn't they have a special name?

[sft42]

Are you thinking of "Spiv".

A spiv was typically a flashily dressed man (velvet collars and lurid kipper ties) who made a living by various disreputable dealings, existing by his wits rather than holding down any job. (Another name was wide boy, with wide having the old slang sense of sharp-witted, or skilled in sharp practice.) He was a small-time crook, living on the fringes of real criminality. He is most strongly associated with the period during and immediately after the Second World War in Britain; he always seemed able to get those coveted luxury items that were unobtainable in that period of austerity except on the black market, such as nylons. Private Walker in the BBC television series Dad's Army was a typical spiv; Arthur Daly, the second-hand car dealer in Minder, was a linear descendent of the breed.

[xyzzy@bok]

arms dealers, governments; or is that just modern terminology. mercenaries maybe.

[Postie]

They were known as "Black Marketeers"

[woofgang]

We may be mixing two concepts here. Black marketeers, or spivs, used to deal in unavailable goods, ration points etc. War profiteers, as xyzzy kind of indicates are people who make what are essentially legal profits from war like arms dealers, people who supply uniforms, troop rations, etcetera

[Jenny Tools]

The modern term is insurance companies