Nineteenth-century Sicilian protection rackets mirrored modern used-car lemons problems

Evidence

A Neapolitan coachman in 1863 gave this account: … I am a dead man. I bought a dead horse who does not know his way around, wants to follow only the roads he likes, slips and falls on slopes, is frightened by firecrackers and bells, and yesterday he shied and ran into a flock of sheep that was barring the way. A camorrista [the Neapolitan version of a mafioso] who protects me and used to control the horse market would have saved me from this crime. He used to check up on the sales and would get his cut from both buyer and seller. Last year I needed to get rid of a blind horse and he helped me to sell it as a sound one, for he protected me. Now he is in jail, and without him I was forced to buy a bad horse. He was a great gentleman! — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 45

Categorization

• XREF: Direct narrative evidence that the lemons problem (Akerlof) predates cars; the camorrista is a private guarantor resolving asymmetric information, exactly the Milgrom private-judge role the reader is tracking.
• CANDY: A vivid 1863 primary quote — a coachman calling his extortionist protector ‘a great gentleman’ for helping him offload a blind horse. Fun and immediately tellable.