The nature of the protection contract is also conditional upon the relative strength of customer and mafioso. Other things being equal, legal businesses are less vulnerable to the mafioso's monopoly, for they can always resort to the law. Similarly, the mafioso with many customers is more independent than the mafioso with just one. Finally, a powerful customer is always treated with respect. The Costanzos were influential and wealthy, and they enjoyed political protection and the friendship of a prominent mafioso from another province. Their firm was effectively a monopoly. As a result, far from being tyrannical, the protection provided by the Calderone brothers appears at times to have been subject to the whims of their clients

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 419