Sicilian economists diagnosed trust scarcity as blocking capital-skill pairing by 1837

Evidence

One exception is the Sicilian economist Francesco Ferrara, who wrote in 1837: “In Sicily … there lacks that feeling of mutual trust which brings together the wealth of the idle man and the skills of the active one” (p. 144). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 845

Categorization

• XREF: Ferrara’s diagnosis in 1837 names precisely the function trust serves — matching idle wealth to active skill — that Gambetta’s whole book argues the Mafia supplies as a substitute.