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

acknowledgments

I am very grateful to Knud Haakonssen for his invitation to contribute this volume to the series “Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics” and for his advice and encouragement at every stage of the editorial process. This edition would not have been possible without the generosity of the Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple, by whose kind permission Richard Hakluyt’s translation of Mare Liberum is reproduced. The staff of the Inner Temple Library, in particular Adrian Blunt, facilitated access to the manuscript and provided crucial help with its decipherment.

I am much indebted to Martine van Ittersum for making the initial transcription of the Inner Temple manuscript and for putting her extensive knowledge of Grotius’s colonial activities at my disposal. I am likewise grateful to Åsa Söderman for scrupulously transcribing Welwod’s reply to Grotius, to Kelly De Luca for her invaluable help in tracing elusive references, and to David Roochnik for kindly checking the Greek quotations. During two memorable seminars at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., Peter Borschberg and Benedict Kingsbury greatly enlightened me about Grotius’s intellectual development and his theoretical significance.

As always, Joyce Chaplin has supported an occasionally flagging editor.

hugo grotius