An aside on piracy connects maritime violence to state authority. The Royal Navy suppressed piracy through force, by becoming the stronger competitor, and at times by bringing pirates into official service or pensioning them off. The discussion then compares this with the close regulation of modern private security because governments resist armed rivals to their own authority. The point is delivered humorously, but it offers an institutional explanation for why similar coercive acts can receive different legal treatment.
Notable Point · 40:11-43:30
Piracy, state authority, and private security
Piracy leads to an informal lesson on how states absorb, suppress, and regulate competing sources of armed power.