Protection is a market where mafiosi may reject customers or bestow protection as gifts.

Evidence

Mafiosi may choose not to accept a customer. A car dealer who became the representative for southern Italy of a large foreign company contacted Giuseppe Calderone and asked if he wanted to become his “partner.” For some reason Calderone refused, and the dealer simply asked another family member … Finally, one may even be lucky enough to receive a protection contract as a gift. A man whose two brothers were mafiosi of no great standing (mezza tacca) found a job at a medical supply shop in Palermo. Out of gratitude the brothers informed the manager that he need no longer pay his (legal) watchman, as his store was now “under good protection” (SC: I, 34). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 421

Categorization

• XREF: The protection market is not one-sided — suppliers can refuse customers or give protection as a gift, which mirrors Gambetta’s own later framing of mafia trust as reciprocal; connects to Schelling on credible commitments and the asymmetry of who holds relational power.