In Sicily and Malta,[1] a gabellotto (Maltese: gabillott) or arbitriante was a person who rented farmland for short-term use.
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 capitalism in the early 19th century.
The peasant would often be in debt to the gabellotto for the rent, tax and supplies and seeds for the planting season.
[4] The gabellotto'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).