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people there". He then went on to describe how he based his argument on what he called the "most specific and unimpeachable axiom of the Law of
Nations, called a primary rule or first principle, the spirit of which is self-evident and immutable", namely that: "Every nation is free to travel to every other nation, and to trade with it." From this premise, Grotius argued that this self-evident and immutable right to travel and to trade required (1) a right of innocent passage over land, and (2) a similar right of
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336:, a Portuguese merchant carrack. It was such a rich prize that its sale proceeds doubled the capital of the V.O.C. The legality of keeping the prize was questionable under Dutch statute and the Portuguese demanded the return of their cargo. The scandal led to a public judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public (and international) opinion. As a result
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The air belongs to this class of things for two reasons. First, it is not susceptible of occupation; and second its common use is destined for all men. For the same reasons the sea is common to all, because it is so limitless that it cannot become a possession of any one, and because it is adapted
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Grotius' argument was that the sea was free to all, and that nobody had the right to deny others access to it. In chapter I, he laid out his objective, which was to demonstrate "briefly and clearly that the Dutch have the right to sail to the East Indies", and, also, "to engage in trade with the
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as part of
Liberty Fund's "Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics" series. The second translation was by Ralph Van Deman Magoffin, associate professor of Greek and Roman History at
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Ittersum, Martine Julia van, "Preparing Mare
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was called, providing a suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up trade monopolies through its formidable naval power.
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in 1609 and
Hakluyt's death in 1616. However, Hakluyt's translation was only published for the first time in 2004 under the title
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Borschberg, Peter, "Hugo
Grotius' Theory of Trans-Oceanic Trade Regulation: Revisiting Mare Liberum (1609),
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issue. The work was assigned to
Grotius by the Zeeland Chamber of the Dutch East India Company in 1608.
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The
Freedom of the Seas, Or, The Right Which Belongs to the Dutch to Take Part in the East Indian Trade
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for the use of all, whether we consider it from the point of view of navigation or of fisheries.
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in the spring of 1609. It has been translated into
English twice. The first translation was by
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Mare
Liberum (1609) and The Freedom of the Seas (1916) – HTML and PDF versions at Liberty Fund
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This article is about the 1609 book. For the legal principle it advocated, also known as
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At dawn of
February 25, 1603 three ships of the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C) seized
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Mare Liberum, Sive De iure quod Batavis competit ad Indicana commercia Dissertatio
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for seafaring trade. The disputation was directed towards the Portuguese
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The Freedom of the Seas (1916) – formatted PDF at the Wikimedia Commons
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James Brown Scott, "Introductory note". In: Hugo Grotius (1916)
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559:Philosophy and thought in the Dutch Republic
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