The freedom of the seas : $b or, The right which belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian tradeGrotius, Hugo
Philosophy
The freedom of the seas : $b or, The right which belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian trade
Grotius, Hugo
Freedom of the seas; Law of the sea
tamen omnes proprietatem rerum, saltem mobilium a iure gentium
primario prodire, itemque contractus omnes quibus pretium non
accedit.[155a] Philosophi[156a] τῆς μεταβλητικῆς quam translationem
vertere licebit, genera statuunt duo: τὴν ἐμπορικιὴν καὶ τὴν
καπηλικήν quarum ἐμπορική quae ut vox ipsa indicat inter
gentes dissitas, ordine naturae prior est, et sic a Platone
ponitur.[157a] Καπηλική eadem videtur esse quae παράστασις[158a]
Aristoteli, tabernaria sive stataria negotiatio inter cives. Idem
Aristoteles[159a] τὴν ἐμπορικήν dividit in ναυκληρίαν et φορτηγίαν
quarum haec terrestri itinere, illa maritimo merces devehit.
Sordidior autem est καπηλική contra honestior ἐμπορική et maritima
maxime, quia multa multis impertit.[160a]
Vnde navium exercitionem ad summam rempublicam pertinere dicit
Vlpianus; institorum non eundem esse usum; quia illa omnino secundum
naturam necessaria est. Aristoteles:[161a] ἔστι γὰρ ἡ μεταβλητικὴ
πάντων, ἀρξαμένη τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν, τῷ τὰ μὲν πλείω, τὰ
δὲ ἐλάττω τῶν ἱκανῶν ἔχειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ‘est enim translatio rerum
omnium coepta ab initio, ab eo quod est secundum naturam, cum homines
partim haberent plura, quam sufficerent, partim etiam pauciora’.
Seneca:[162a] ‘quae emeris, vendere; gentium ius est’.
Commercandi igitur libertas ex iure est primario gentium,
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authorities agree that the ownership of things, particularly of
movables, arises out of the primary law of nations, and that all
contracts in which a price is not mentioned, are derived from the
same source.[155] The philosophers[156] distinguish two kinds of
exchange using Greek words which we shall take the liberty to
translate as ‘wholesale’ and ‘retail’ trade. The former, as the Greek
word shows, signifies trade or exchange between widely separated
nations, and it ranks first in the order of Nature, as is shown
in Plato’s Republic.[157] The latter seems to be the same kind of
exchange that Aristotle calls by another Greek word[158] which means
retail or shop trade between citizens. Aristotle makes a further
division of wholesale trade into overland and overseas trade.[159]
But of the two, retail trade is the more petty and sordid, and
wholesale the more honorable; but most honorable of all is the
wholesale overseas trade, because it makes so many people sharers in
so many things.[160]
Hence Ulpian says that the maintenance of ships is the highest duty
of a state, because it is an absolutely natural necessity, but that
the maintenance of hucksters has not the same value. In another place
Aristotle says: “For the art of exchange extends to all possessions,
and it arises at first in a natural manner from the circumstance that
some have too little, others too much.”[161] And Seneca is also to be
cited in this connection for he has said that buying and selling is
the law of nations.[162]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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