The sudden run of British 74 orders raises the question of how the Navy could change designs so quickly. The answer lies in the accumulated infrastructure behind the ships: connected royal dockyards, classification systems, officials, and repeatable construction processes. Part of that capacity is traced to the Interregnum and the Restoration settlement, which did not simply restore the prewar monarchy. Parliament retained a growing role in government, estimates, and oversight. Political and administrative institutions made it possible to translate a captured design into a building program.
Notable Point · 33:26-36:47
Dockyard infrastructure and state capacity
Britain could absorb foreign design lessons because dockyards, inspectors, and post-Interregnum parliamentary administration supplied durable state capacity.