Villagers paid private armed escorts to secure their wheat transport
Evidence
It had become demonstrably clear to most villagers that if they valued public security, it would have to come about through their own efforts… This situation provided the incentive for Mariano Ardena to organize, among members of the Catholic circle he headed, a group of two armed individuals to escort, at a price, villagers taking wheat to the mill… This venture soon became a successful going concern. By 1900 it was expanded into a barter system. Villagers no longer needed to go to the distant mill. For a modest fee, they could exchange wheat for flour without leaving the Camporano area. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 238
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: A concrete private-protection market in action — matches Gambetta’s core thesis and gives the reader a specific case of third-party enforcement substituting for state.
Related
- State security failure motivated peasants to pay for private armed escorts (similarity 0.93)
- Post-Soviet racketeers offered farmers protection for monthly payments (similarity 0.79)