How the Victorian Royal Navy could afford physical trials

How could the Victorian Royal Navy afford physical trials between ships, and are modern procurement equivalents usually computer simulations?

Exceptional resources made full-scale trials and threat-driven construction affordable, whereas modern procurement usually relies much more heavily on simulation.

The nineteenth-century Royal Navy possessed what the discussion calls an embarrassment of riches. An admiral could identify a threat and often secure money for a matching ship with limited resistance. That abundance made real-world experimentation possible, but it also encouraged irregular building programmes without a consistently controlling design hand. Fisher's later campaign to dispose of obsolete or unsuitable vessels was partly an attempt to manage the accumulated consequences.