How to Do Business Like the Mafia: the Italian and American Mafia’s Role in Businesses Essay

Since the maffias appearance in the 1800s, these Italian criminal societies fool infiltrated the economic and amicable realms of Italy and now play a large role in numerous countries finishedout the existence. Today the maffia is considered one of the about notorious and widespread criminal g all all overn custodyts that has ever existed. The well up-nigh grown parts of the world that the maffia exists be in Italy and the States w here(predicate) they play a large role in these countries economies, most notably with their secure of sm each and large descentes.Just homogeneous the parenthood of the word mafia, the history of Sicily, which is considered the birthplace of the maffia, and its relationship with this placement, is very unique. Beca expenditure of its geographic location, Sicily has eternally been a desirable location for trade and colonization. Gen successionlly speaking, the mafia is opinion of as an Italian secret villainy society, just now the orig ins of the mafia come forward vogue before the introduction and use of automatic weapons and extrajudicial doses.It was born(p) long before it was given its name, by means of a long diachronic process in which the administration of umpire was extremely fragmented and corrupt, guaranteeing impunity to the criminals. In a time of hardship and poverty, the mafia began as a way of life a way to protect ones family and love ones from the injustice of the politics. Sicilys violent and oppressive government history and its many corrupt and inconsistent rulers, especially regarding their justice system, fostered an atmosphere of self-reliance and cooperation among the Italian quite a little.Through fear, inspired by threats and violence and supported by an organization of family and friends, the maffia was able to crystalize and maintain this reliance and respect. It is important to sleep together the origin of the mafia because it is through these institutions and social s ocial organisations that the Mafia was able to gain an immense amount of exponent and olibanum lock stemmaes most the world today. In 241 BC the Romans gained control over Sicily in the first Punic War.The Romans introduced the economic and social system cal take the Latifundia, which created a hierarchy of throng and a system of taxation that would be central to Sicilys economy until Italian unification in 1861. Although the Romans actions in Sicily have no direct influence in the creation of the Mafia, they did get up the social structure of hierarchy from which the Mafia would emerge and dismantletually control areas of shore and inadvertently control a large part of the Italian economy.In 826 the Roman Empire fell to the Arabs who brought an important aspect of life to the Sicilian mountain that would howevertually pay off part of the Mafia culture native justice. Instead of having a system of authorities to deal with annoyance and misconduct, they utilise person al and internal justice to avenge annoyances and set records straight in order to keep their rail linees under their own control. The Normans were the next conclave to usurp Sicily in the 11th century and they greatly magnified the feudal structure established by the Romans.The Spanish conquered Sicily in 1500 and they are considered the longest and most important foreign presence in Sicily. The Sicilian people were not represented by the government and eventually organized into guilds that acted as a judicial system. These guilds were unlike other atomic look 63an guilds and took care of their problems internally and did not include state or local authority. Internal justice led by these guilds was another step towards the formation of the Mafia (Servadio). In the ripe 1500s and the wee 1600s Sicilys feudal system went through some administrative changes.In the early 1600s large landholders in Sicily lived in Palermo, handing over the command of their estates to estate mana gers called gabelloti. Appointed by the landlord, these men who were usually already prominent and respected within their region could use their spot to control the people who inhabited the land. The use of the gabelloti continued through a succession of leaders and became the principle method of rule. The gabelloti, using the antecedent given to them by the landlord, began to create entourages consisting of uomo di fiducia. The uomo di fiducia served as tax ollectors, and they had direct tactual sensation with the people.They were accompanied by campieri who were armed forces that unbroken the peace through fear. The outcome of these new groups as well marks the creation of the middle class in Sicily, and from the middle class emerged the Mafia. All members of the Sicilian middle class employ dissident tactics to gain federal agency and coin. Middlemen processed peasants for money, artists kept people out of guilds to perpetuate their own success, and magistrates and atto rneys delayed cases in an already wriggle legal system.During the late 1700s and early 1800s these separate hardly powerful groups started to make contacts with each other. In addition to befriending each other, they in addition befriended local and regional magistrates. It is get to that as these groups began to unite themselves with the government to become a stronger and more formidable force in Sicilys justice system, they were also gaining political ties that would allow them to agree out their chore without fundamental interaction from the authorities (Servadio). Sicilys long history with multiple judicially ungainly governments led to the creation and necessity of the Mafia.The Mafia was able to give people the business and protection that they not whole precious, provided needed. These corrupt government institutions fostered an environment where those who were clever enough could manipulate the system to their advantage creating wealth, power and prestige through the exploitation of land, peasants and political officials in Italy as well as America. The Mafia was never just a group of gangsters, even from the beginning. There were those who carried out the dirty work, but the leaders, known as the godfathers, were ofttimes more political and business thinkers than gangsters.The Mafia used their power, gained through fear, to not only exploit the landowners and peasants but also used their political ties to carry on illegal activities without problems from local or state authorities. As the Mafia gained power and influence over the various regions and government officials, these illegal activities would exposit greatly, inadvertently increasing their overall control as an organization. By the 1900s the Mafia had become a very powerful and widespread organization throughout Italy despite an extensive amount unemployment and overty that permeated not only Sicily, but the rest of Europe as well.This is still true to this day when many countries around the world are suffering economically, the Mafia manages to stay afloat(predicate) and even increase their success. Many underprivileged Italians began to immigrate to America to stripping better jobs to support their families. This is also when the Mafia formally entered America and began to set up small organizations throughout the country. By 1922 Mussolini and Fascism had taken a whole grip on Italy and began to crack down on the Mafia, either send them to prison or assassinating them.Mussolini assigned Cesare Mori prefect of Italy in order for him to defeat the Mafia. Prefect Mori wanted to bring Sicily under control of the state so he hang their rights, humiliated and arrested them and took women and children hostage in order to force the Mafia to surrender. Mussolinis wrath pushed more and more Mafiosi out of Italy and into America (Servadio). The Mafiosi originally settled in large cities, like Chicago and freshly York, where industry was plethoric and there we re opportunities for crime, fraud and racketeering everywhere.Initially the American Mafia gangs center primarily on protection rackets, but with the coming of Prohibition they began to detonate to gambling, pitch-blackging and prostitution. It is in these fields that the American Mafia became enormously blind drunk and powerful. One of the main moderatenesss the Mafia in Italy, as well as America, has been so successful is repayable to its influence and heavy involvement in businesses around the world. These businesses allowed the Mafia to maintain a powerful presence in various regions by exploiting landowners, construction companies and other lucrative industries, such as medicate trafficking, through fear.Despite the global recession that hit Europe in 2009, the Mafia was the one business that continued to thrive during this lam economic time. The Italian Mafias revenue for 2008 jumped 40 per centum and sales increased to 130 gazillion Euros, or $167 billion, up from 9 0 billion Euros in 2007 according to figures supplied by Eurispes and SOS impresa (Harwood). Over the past 50 years, the main source of revenue for the Mafia has been drug trafficking, which brings in around 59 billion Euros a year (Harwood). Studies show the criminal grocery store never suffers during a crisis, says Roberto Saviano, author of the best-selling bookGomorrah, the story of the Camorra crime bosses. Im convinced that this crisis is bringing huge advantages to criminal syndicates (Harwood). The Italian mafia also relies on its tried and true profit generating system of rules the protection racket (Harwood). It is estimated that the mafia takes away over 6 per centum of Italys Gross Domestic Product, GDP, through extortion. Thats 92 billion Euros a year, 250 million Euros a day, and 10 million Euros an hour (Harwood). evil organizations have never been more powerful or more profitable.A small-business association called Confesercenti estimates that the Mafia collecte d revenues of 90 billion, $128 billion, in 2006, a wedlock equivalent to 7 percent of Italys GDP indicating that the Mafias influence as well as success continues to increase (Harwood). The Mafia does not only focus on exploiting businesses and trafficking drugs in Italy but has also extended its power to the UK British cities are key locations in the Mafias vital money-laundering operations (Kington). In December of 2009, a British gambling company known as Paradise Bet Ltd was suspend when Italian guard froze its assets.This action was an attempt by the Italian police to break up a Mafia clan who was in control of this company members were accused of drug smuggling, money laundering and attempted murder. In an operation code-named Domino, police raids seized 227 properties, 680 bank accounts, 61 luxury cars, cabaret stables, 71 horses and 35 businesses said to be worth ? 200 million (Kington). Members of the Secondigliano Alliance, which is a group within the Camorra, are surm ise of owning shops in capital of the United Kingdom that tour out fake designer goods and act as hideouts for fugitives and fronts for drug trafficking.These are two prime examples of the Mafias control and sureness over businesses, land and other profitable assets. In 2000 it was reported that the Mafia controlled one in five business in Italy. Their remuneration were universe invested in real estate, clinics, retirement homes, supermarkets, hotels and restaurants. The fortunes do by the mafia through these exploitations would be enough to pay off the public debt (BBC News) By obtaining power over these types of businesses the Mafia eventually gains authority over entire areas and even regions.The Mafia is notorious for gaining control of institutions by using a admixture of bribery and fear, and then murdering those that cross them. Control over businesses is the main reason why the Mafia is able to maintain its income as well as overall power. The Mafia uses discreet tacti cs to acquire land and businesses so they do not attract attention from authorities. By owning a group of small companies or even a restaurant, the Mafia is able to exploit money from them without being obvious, adding to the reasons why the inner workings of the Mafia are so secretive.Francesco Forgione, Italys leading expert in organized crime describes how the Nadranghetas Fazzari clan has two suspected members that are buying up property in Londons Wed End district. They have yet to kill but are instead investing in property and other companies to gain control over various areas in this region (Kington). Another example of the Mafias role in business is Antonio La Torre, a Camorra boss, who was arrested in 2005 for setting up a small commercial empire as a money-laundering operation in Aberdeen.This business included an olive oil and prosciutto-importing company and restaurant that offered jobs to Neapolitans (Harwood). It is here that you can see that the Mafia does not always resort to drug trafficking but is able to gain the same amount of power and money through what seem like legitimate businesses in order to plow up their corrupt actions. Recently, the Italian Mafia has also begun to infiltrate the pilfer farm business. Known in parts of Italy as Lords of the Wind the Mafia now owns many farting farms in Sicilian mob strongholds like Corleone (Schwartz).The reasoning behind this sudden takeover is quite simple the power from wind farms is sold at a high rate because of too-generous government subsidies intended to detonate the renewable energy sector. With 30 wind farms already built in Sicily and another 60 on the way, it is suspected that the Mafia will eventually control many of them. Not all 30 wind farms are owned by the Mafia but many are and locals are afraid to do anything to combat this issue, thus exemplifying the Mafias ability to maintain their influence and control over businesses through fear.Green energy could be the next expecta nt company that becomes a casualty of the Mafias criminal natural process (Schwartz). Once the Mafia began to arrive in American in the 1920s, it became clear that their initial business meditations were different from that of their homeland. Many who fled here in the early 1920s helped establish what is known today as La Cosa Nostra or the American Mafia.Learning from their organizations back in Italy, the traditions of the Sicilian honored society, which perfectly forbade involvement in either narcotics or prostitution, the Mafia left the eroin business to the powerful Jewish gangsters who dominated organized crime in the 1920s (Servadio). The Mafia was content with the substantial profits to be gained from controlling the bootleg hard drink industry. By the 1920s The United States and the provinces within Canada had adopted prohibition. It was during that era that North America gave birth to some of the largest crime syndicates, most distressing criminals, and mafia leaders. For the Mafia, prohibition meant employment, easy money and control over businesses and the people.The spoil money, prostitution, extortion and other criminal rackets did not make nearly as more money in comparison to the intake from bootlegging. Prohibition created an atmosphere that allowed crime to flourish an atmosphere, which the mafia used and used to gain control over the people, businesses and subsequent regions of the United States. Prohibition was the first step that allowed the American Mafia to gain control over one of the most lucrative business America had ever seen. The leader of this Mafioso movement was Salvatore C.Luciana, known to the world as Charles Lucky Luciano. Lucky pioneered organizational techniques that are still the basis of organized crime today and forged an alliance between the Mafia and prominent Jewish gangs that has survived for almost 40 years. With the end of Prohibition in sight, Luciano made the end to take the Mafia into the profitable pro stitution and heroin rackets. This decision was determined more by financial considerations than anything else. The dominance of the Mafia over its Jewish and Irish rivals was built on its success in illegal distilling and rum running.Its continued supremacy, which Luciano hoped to maintain through superior organization and business, could only be sustained by developing new sources of income drug trafficking (Servadio). diacetylmorphine was an attractive substitute to illegal distilling because it had recently become illegal. This in turn left a large market that could be easily exploited and expanded. Although heroin addicts in no way compared with drinkers in numbers, heroin profits could be just as square heroins set about weight made it less expensive to smuggle than liquor, and its limited number of sources made it more easy to monopolize.Although illegal, this was a smart business venture for the American Mafia and enabled them to control a significant part of the liquor an d drug trafficking business. Heroin, moreover, complemented Lucianos and subsequently the Cosa Nostras other new business venture the organization of a prostitution ring. Luciano found that addicting his prostitutes to heroin kept them quiet, steady workers, with a habit that could only be funded by this occupation. This also forced many small-time pimps out of business.By 1935 Luciano controlled 200 New York City brothels with twelve hundred prostitutes, providing him with an estimated income of more than $10 million a year (Servadio). Supplemented by growing profits from gambling and the labor movement, The Cosa Nostra was at once again on a secure financial footing due to their influence and involvement with profitable and productive business ventures such as alcohol and drug trafficking as well as prostitution they acknowledges what the people wanted and provided them with a service they would be unable to find anywhere else thus monopolizing that specific industry.It is clear that the Mafia has not only infiltrated the business of Italy but America as well and through these institution it has remained a dominant part of these societies. Although illegal in many aspects, the business ventures that Mafia undertake are incredibly lucrative and give them the opportunity to expand their organization on a large scale. Although governments are taking significant action in combating the Mafia, they continue to grow and dominate the economies of many societies to this day.