Fans of The Sopranos will be pleased to hear that the earliest formal study of the Italian mafia was all about food. Franchetti examined two professional societies of millers based near Palermo, the island’s capital. Under normal market conditions, the millers would have competed with each other on the price and quality of their flour. Customers would have bought the flour that was cheapest and of the highest quality. But the millers soon realized that there was an easier way to run their industry. Rather than compete, they decided to collude, taking turns to cut back on their production in
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