Sometimes the poor cut out the middleman of government entirely.

Large landlords are usually represented by ministri, or factors, who direct agricultural operations and manage the estates, but the estate is often let to a middleman, or mercante di campagna.

Squarcione, whose original vocation was tailoring, appears to have had a remarkable enthusiasm for ancient art, and a proportionate faculty for acting, with profit to himself and others, as a sort of artistic middleman; his own performances as a painter were merely mediocre.

While it is true that shopping at an outlet mall is a way to find good deals because there is no middleman retailer to mark up the prices, savvy shoppers can find even better bargains if they investigate special offers.

Tzibos took advantage of the extreme poverty of the Lazi to create a Roman monopoly by which he became a middleman for all the trade both export and import.