One of history’s most notorious organized criminal enterprises has its roots in Sicilian lemon groves and the discovery of the cause of scurvy.
Scurvy, a disease caused by an absence of vitamin C in one’s diet, is estimated to have killed over two million European sailors during the Age of Discovery. During the 18th century, when Great Britain was involved in worldwide naval warfare, more British sailors died from scurvy than from combat. By the end of that century the cause had come to be understood and the British began to require that lemon juice be served to all naval crews. The result was a boom in demand for lemons, which had previously been used primarily only for decoration or the manufacture of perfume.
Sicily had ideal conditions for the cultivation of lemons. It already had a small lemon industry but when demand (and prices) surged in the early 19th century, Sicilian farmers began converting all available farmland to cultivating lemon trees. Production boomed and by the mid-1800s Sicilian growers were exporting millions of cases of lemons.
Sicily at the time was a poor and largely lawless society. Groves of ripe lemons made tempting targets for thieves and a gang could clean out an unprotected grove overnight. To protect their crops, growers began employing armed guards. The protectors of the Sicilian farmers soon organized into a syndicate, calling themselves “mafiosi.”
The mafiosi infiltrated and came to control the lemon supply chain. They were paid by growers for protection, they extorted payments from growers who hadn’t asked for their protection, they stole a portion of the crops for themselves, and they extorted payments from exporters. As their power and wealth grew, the mafiosi began to branch out into other criminal enterprises, while acquiring power and influence in government, law enforcement, and commerce.
In the late 19th century Sicilian lemon growers were hit by both a severe drought and the effects of competition from American citrus growers in Florida. As the Sicilian citrus industry declined, so did the rest of the Sicilian economy, driving tens of thousands of Sicilians to emigrate to the United States in the 1890s, and bringing the mafiosi with them.
Today the Mafia has moved on from its humble beginnings as lemon grove racketeers. The family-based criminal organization now operates worldwide, organizing and engaging in drug trafficking, illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion, fraud, and murder. The organization remains powerful in Sicily but continues significant criminal enterprises throughout Italy and the United States as well.
The image is an 1873 engraving titled “Interrogation of a Landowner by Sicilian Mafiosi.”
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