Memes

Protecting private property rights, if I had to guess. Which is consistent with the fact that enslaved Africans were denigrated to the status of private property.

Hired protectors of the landlords' private property and the patrol guards for the nobles including the royalty.

Depends on the nation. I think of Scotland Yard and how it was originally just built and created to protect private property and quell riots.

Capitalists were hiring goons to protect their private property, and at some point they realized they could get the state to subsidize that expense and sell it as "public safety".