The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• A Note On the Texts
• Acknowledgments
• The Free Sea, Or a Disputation Concerning the Right Which the Hollanders Ought to Have to the Indian Merchandise For Trading
• To the Princes and Free States of the Christian World
• Chapter 1: By the Law of Nations Navigation Is Free For Any to Whomsoever
• Chapter 2: That the Portugals Have No Right of Dominion Over Those Indians to Whom the Hollanders Sail By Title of Invention
• Chapter 3: That the Portugals Have No Right of Dominion Over the Indians By Title of the Pope’s Gift
• Chapter 4: That the Portugals Have No Right of Dominion Over the Indians By Title of War
• Chapter 5: That the Sea Or Right of Sailing On It Is Not Proper to the Portugals By Title of Possession
• Chapter 6: The Sea Or Right of Navigation Is Not Proper to the Portugals By Title of the Pope’s Gift
• Chapter 7: That the Sea Or Right of Sailing Is Not Proper to the Portugals By Title of Prescription Or Custom
• Chapter 8: That Trading Is Free By the Law of Nations Among All Or Between Any
• Chapter 9: That Merchandise Or Trading With the Indians Is Not Proper to the Portugals By Title of Possession
• Chapter 10: That Trading With the Indians Is Not Proper to the Portugals By Title of the Pope’s Donation
• Chapter 11: That Trading With the Indians Is Not Proper to the Portugals By the Right of Prescription Or Custom
• Chapter 12: That the Portugals Incline Not to Equity In Forbidding Trade
• Chapter 13: That the Right of the Indian Trade Is to Be Retained and Maintained Both By Peace, Truce and War
• William Welwod’s Critique: “of the Community and Propriety of the Seas”
• Hugo Grotius’s Reply: “defense of Chapter V of the Mare Liberum ” Which Had Been Attacked By William Welwod, Professor of Civil Law, In Chapter Xxvii of That Book Written In English to Which He Gave the Title “ an Abridgement of All Sea-lawes ”
• Bibliography

A Note on the Texts

Hugo Grotius, The Free Sea, trans. Richard Hakluyt

The Inner Temple manuscript is a fair copy but contains a few minor emendations by Hakluyt himself; these have been silently incorporated into the text. The manuscript does not include Grotius’s marginal annotations; these have been supplied from the 1609 text of Mare Liberum and have been expanded, supplemented, and corrected as necessary.

Editorial additions to the text are indicated by square brackets.

William Welwod, “Of the Community
and Propriety of the Seas” (1613)

Hugo Grotius, “Defense of Chapter V of the Mare Liberum” (ca. 1615), trans. Herbert F. Wright