Some centuries ago, pirates* were an ongoing major problem for Britain. Eventually, a competent & responsible monarch ascended to the throne - and organized & enlarged the Royal Navy to actually deal with that problem. (Not saying it was consistently well-managed thereafter.)
No, that wasn't cheap. But compared to the losses to piracy, or costs of each merchant arming & manning his ships so heavily that they could (usually) drive off pirates, the taxes to support the RN were pretty clearly the lesser evil.
Unfortunately, I don't see Charles III being competent nor responsible enough to do much anything about this new problem. Not that the monarch has the legal authority, these days.
No, that wasn't cheap. But compared to the losses to piracy, or costs of each merchant arming & manning his ships so heavily that they could (usually) drive off pirates, the taxes to support the RN were pretty clearly the lesser evil.
Unfortunately, I don't see Charles III being competent nor responsible enough to do much anything about this new problem. Not that the monarch has the legal authority, these days.
*This kind of pirate - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy#Middle_Ages Not the IP law kind.