3. A History of Sicily (Finley et al. 1986) points out that in Sicily limited companies were formed only on a family basis and that "Sicilians themselves always preferred to insure abroad with companies which had the reputation for paying up at once without going to court" (158). Correspondingly, insurance companies expected high premiums from Sicilian merchants because they did not trust them. Usury is said to have been widespread in the whole of southern Italy before and after Unification, and to have been a major obstacle to development (Sonnino 1974: 104-110; Villari 1978: 13). Among other things, high interest rates express low trust in the ability or willingness of borrowers to repay their loans. Although little research has been done, there are signs that an oligopoly of credit sources may have existed in Sicily, as attempts to democratize credit opportunities in the 1880s met with fierce opposition, which evidently culminated with the murder in 1893 of Emanuele Notarbartolo, head of the Bank of Sicily (see Barone 1987).

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 844