This theory, at first glance, seems to contradict the model constructed in this book, according to which the mafia emerges where there are abundant opportunities for supplying protection and where economic activity is most intense. A rural economy based on large estates with a limited variety of produce and linked to the outside world by a limited number of elementary transactions is an improbable context for the development of a protection industry.

QUESTION: This apparent contradiction between the author's model and an alternative rural-economy theory warrants chasing. What does the resolution reveal about where protection industries actually form?

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 207