Here is part of a presentation by Prof. Lorenzo Picchi of the University of Florence (Italy), a recognized authority on the Mafia:
Agrarian mafia It was in the Sicilian interior that the mafia was exploiting peasants the most The Latifondo System (Described on pag. 156 of the book Cosa Nostra by John Dickie) A gabelloto leases on a short term contract (usually one year) a property called latifondo from a noble (this money is called gabella). Then he shares the land and sub rents each plot of land to the peasants, to be paid through agricultural products either through the system of the Metateria or the Terraggio. Metateria - It was a form of Mezzadria that in Sicily did not mean ½ as in the rest of Italy but ¼, the deal was not made directly with the landowner like in Tuscany in the other region of the North of Italy but with the middle man, who was a brutal Mafioso; the peasants were not living in the podere (farm) like in Tuscany and in the rest of Italy but in villages around Terratico or Terraggio A quota was fixed TO BE PAID TO THE GABELLOTO, established at the beginning of the year. Peasants had to loan seeds, loans, wheat from the gabelloto; at the end of the year, being the contract oral, the gabelloto was of course claiming for a bigger part of what he had anticipated Donativi: quotas paid to the campieri and sovrastanti by the peasants 10 The agrarian mafia: - Landowners - Gabelloti: joining the mafia enabled a gabelloto to do his job better - Campieri: protecting the field from bandits - Sovrastanti: supervising the reaping - Fontanieri: providing watering to the fields The parasitic revenue of the gabelloto derived from: What he was obtaining by the peasants - gabella (rent) Peasants had always debts with the gabelloti and had just enough to survive If they rebelled the pattern was: - Friendly advice - Threat - Lupara So they had three alternatives of life: 1) Be exploited by the mafia and reduced to slavery 2) Migrate 3) (Try to) Join the mafia and become a campiere
You can download all of Prof. Picchi's slides here:
