Protection purchases bundle dispute mediation with labor and theft control

Evidence

The services offered by mafiosi are comprehensive. The Cassina construction firm won a contract to build the new banks of a river which cut across the town of Ribera. Threatened with prosecution, Luciano Cassina revealed that “the sums we paid were not for material supplies received from [Carmelo] Colletti, but represented payment for ‘services’ of a different nature which Colletti had provided for us” (OSAG: 98-99; OSAG Arnone: 153). The builder was eager to stress that he had not been intimidated by Colletti, who “had always behaved correctly.” Don Carmelo “solved problems,” such as ensuring a constant and reliable flow of building materials to the site (OSAG Arnone: 193), mediating on every controversy with the locals (pp. 149-151), “preventing trade union activities which might jeopardize the productivity of the site” (OSAG: 170), and making sure no thefts occurred (p. 151). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 428

Categorization

• XREF: The bundled service list (materials flow, mediation, union suppression, theft prevention) shows protection as a one-stop private-governance package—parallels the Champagne Fair courts’ amalgam of services in Milgrom/Roberts.
• SEED: Article angle: what the launderable invoices for ‘protection services’ reveal about how quasi-legal protection markets invoice their bundled governance work.