The enforcement of austerity required the establishment of a bureaucracy of quite some proportions, which nonetheless proved ineffective in preventing the emergence of a black market in which rationed products—often smuggled from the countryside—were sold at higher prices. To counter this, the government established in September 1950 the Office for Fighting the Black Market (Hebrew: מטה למלחמה בשוק השחור‎, Mate LeMilhama BaShuk HaShahor), whose goal it was to combat the forming of such a market. Yet despite the increased supervision, and the specially summoned courts, all such attempts at suppression proved ineffective.[citation needed]