Throughout history, governments always used their local monopoly on violence to extract value/rents/tax from those conducting business and creating economic surplus in their guarded territory.

In history - might is right. People have been competing to become the ultimate gatekeeper. The reason they pursue this is because it’s the least-resistance path to become wealthy.

Indeed, the first people to become wealthy in history were those that were able to specialize in violence, or religion, to establish monopolies on local police and local commerce.

-- an excerpt from the Saylor Series Episode 2 - the Rise of Man through the Dark and Steel Ages, its 2-minute version can be found here https://www.2minutebitcoin.org/blog/saylor-series-episode-2-the-rise-of-man-through-the-dark-and-steel-ages-robert-breedlove