{{Short description|Farm renter}} {{Italic title}} In Sicily and Malta,<ref>{{Cite web |last=miklem |date=2018-11-04 |title=Gabillott |url=https://www.ilmiklem.com/gabillott/ |access-date=2024-07-20 |website=Il-Miklem |language=en-GB |quote=Fi żminijietna, Il-kelma gabillott, tirriferi għal dak il-bidwi li jaħdem l-għelieqi. F’Malta u fi Sqallija tal-Medjuevu l-gabillott kien dak li jieħu ħsieb jiġbor il-qbiela mingħand il-bdiewa għan-nom tas-sid tal-art. |trans-quote=In these contemporary times, the word 'gabillott' refers to the farmer that works fields. In Medieval Malta and Sicily, the 'gabillott' was the person that collected the rent from the farmers in the name of the landowner.}}</ref> a '''''gabellotto''''' (Maltese: ''gabillott''), or '''''arbitriante''''', was a sharecropper who rented farmland for short-term use. ''Gabellotti'' leased the lands from local aristocrats more attracted to the comforts of the city.<ref name=gambetta83>Gambetta, ''The Sicilian Mafia'', pp. 83-84</ref> In Sicily, many ''gabellotti'' were associated with – if not members of – the Mafia. Such alliances would allow them to protect themselves and their assets from bandits and cattle rustlers, as well as cut through much of the messy legalities left over from Sicily's transition from feudalism to a capitalist market economy in the early 19th century.<ref name="DickieCosaNostra">Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', [https://archive.org/details/cosanostrahistor0000dick_f3j1/page/51/mode/1up pp. 51–52]</ref>
The word is derived from the Sicilian word ''gabella'' (in Maltese similarly sounding: ''qbiela''), meaning a "tax or duty in the form of a required payment". The ''gabellotto'' paid the landowner for the use of land, and rented out the use of the land to peasants or through a sub-lease to ''sotto-gabellotto''. In practice, the ''gabellotto'' acted as an overseer and was the real power on the estate. He hired guards (''campieri'') to protect livestock, equipment and the property, and to control the peasants. The peasant would often be in debt to the ''gabellotto'' for the rent, tax and supplies and seeds for the planting season. The ''gabellotto'' eventually would overpower the landowner and by the mid-19th century would be the real power on the Sicilian countryside.<ref name=albini31>Albini & McIllwain, ''Deconstructing Organized Crime'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=pYAMhR4HCEIC&pg=PA351 pp. 31-35]</ref>
The ''gabellotto''<nowiki/>'s role extended well beyond the boundaries of the estate covering the security needs in areas out of control of the state in central and western Sicily with his guards. Over the course of the breakup of the feudal economy in the first half of the 19th century he established a power to intimidate society both upwards (the absentee landlords) and downwards (the peasants).<ref name=lupo36>Lupo, ''History of the Mafia'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=Winf_4mif90C&pg=PA36 pp. 36-37]</ref>
==References== ;Citations {{reflist}}
===Sources=== * Albini, Joseph L.; McIllwain, Jeffrey Scott (2012). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pYAMhR4HCEIC Deconstructing Organized Crime: An Historical and Theoretical Study]'', Jefferson NC: McFarland, {{ISBN|978-0-7864-9299-2}} * Dickie, John (2004). ''[https://archive.org/details/cosanostrahistor0000dick_f3j1/ Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia'', London: Coronet, {{ISBN|0-340-82435-2}} * Gambetta, Diego (1993). ''The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection'', London: Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|0-674-80742-1}} * Lupo, Salvatore (2009). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Winf_4mif90C History of the Mafia]'', New York: Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-231-13134-6}}
Category:Culture of Sicily