The Online Library of Liberty

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• 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

chapter 9

That merchandise or trading with the Indians is not
proper to the Portugals by title of possession

Invention or occupation hath not the first place here because the right of buying and selling is no corporal thing which may be apprehended. Nor should it profit the Portugals although they had been the first men which had traffic with the Indians, which, notwithstanding, cannot but be most untrue. For seeing in the beginning people went into divers parts, it is necessary that some should be the first merchants who, notwithstanding (it is most certain), gained no right at all. Wherefore, if any right belonged to the Portugals that they should only trade with the Indians, by the example of other servitudes it must proceed from some grant either expressed or secret, to wit, from prescription. For otherwise it cannot be.