its cargo, insisting that it had been an unlawful seizure. The
directors of the VOC felt they had to make a case for themselves that did more than glorify their capacity to get away with
such theft. They needed principles of international law to prove they were justified in their actions, so they commissioned
a bright young lawyer from Delft, Huig de Groot (better known in English by the Latin version of his name, Grotius) to write
a brief justifying their claim that the seizure was not piracy but an act taken in defense of the company’s legitimate interests.
In 1608, Grotius delivered what the VOC directors wanted. De jure praedae , translated into English as The Spoils of War , argued that the Spanish naval blockade of the Netherlands, then in force, was an act of war. Such provocation gave the Dutch
the right to treat Portuguese and Spanish ships as belligerent vessels. One of their ships captured in war was legitimate
booty, not illegal seizure. The following year, Grotius expanded The Spoils of War into his masterwork, Mare Liberum , or in its full English title, The Freedom of the Seas or the Right Which Belongs to the Dutch to Take Part in the East Indian Trade .
In The Freedom of the Seas , Grotius makes several bold and novel arguments. The boldest of all is one that no one had thus far thought to make: all
people have the right to trade. For the first time, the freedom of trade is declared a principle of international law, as
it has been of the international order ever since. From this fundamental principle, it follows that no state has the right
to prevent the nationals of another state from using sea-lanes for the pursuit of trade. If trade was free, then the seas
on which they traded also were free. Portugal and Spain had no basis for abrogating that right by monopolizing the maritime
trade to Asia. Grotius would not accept their argument that they had earned the monopoly by dint of the work they did to carry
Christianity to the natives in those parts of the world where they traded. The duty of converting the heathen not only did
not trump freedom to trade; for Grotius, it was offensive to the principle that all should be treated equally. “Religious
belief does not do away with either natural or human law from which sovereignty is derived,” he stated. That people should
refuse to accept Christianity is “not sufficient cause to justify war upon them, or to despoil them of their goods.” Nor is
the expense to convert them to be redeemed by preventing other nations from trading with them. Armed with a hugely self-interested
interpretation of Grotius’s argument, the VOC allowed its captains to use force wherever they were blocked from trading.
The VOC directors also recognized that the best way to dominate the trade in porcelain was to acquire it through regular trade
channels, not steal it from other ships. They started informing their captains departing for Bantam that they should not think
of coming back without some Chinese porcelain. In 1608, they sent a shopping list: 50,000 butter dishes, 10,000 plates,
2,000 fruit dishes, and 1,000 each of salt cellars, mustard pots, and various wide bowls and large dishes, plus an unspecified
number of jugs and cups. This order represented a spike in demand that Chinese merchants at first failed to meet. Instead,
demand drove up prices. “The porcelain here comes generally so expensive,” noted the dismayed head of operations in Bantam
in a letter to the VOC directors in 1610. Worse, whenever a fleet of Dutch ships arrives in port, the Chinese merchants “immediately
run up the prices so much, that I cannot calculate a profit on them.” The only way to control this price volatility was to
stop all further purchases and negotiate improved supply with the Chinese. “We shall henceforth look out for porcelain and
try to contract with the Chinese that they bring a lot,” he wrote, “for what they have
directors of the VOC felt they had to make a case for themselves that did more than glorify their capacity to get away with
such theft. They needed principles of international law to prove they were justified in their actions, so they commissioned
a bright young lawyer from Delft, Huig de Groot (better known in English by the Latin version of his name, Grotius) to write
a brief justifying their claim that the seizure was not piracy but an act taken in defense of the company’s legitimate interests.
In 1608, Grotius delivered what the VOC directors wanted. De jure praedae , translated into English as The Spoils of War , argued that the Spanish naval blockade of the Netherlands, then in force, was an act of war. Such provocation gave the Dutch
the right to treat Portuguese and Spanish ships as belligerent vessels. One of their ships captured in war was legitimate
booty, not illegal seizure. The following year, Grotius expanded The Spoils of War into his masterwork, Mare Liberum , or in its full English title, The Freedom of the Seas or the Right Which Belongs to the Dutch to Take Part in the East Indian Trade .
In The Freedom of the Seas , Grotius makes several bold and novel arguments. The boldest of all is one that no one had thus far thought to make: all
people have the right to trade. For the first time, the freedom of trade is declared a principle of international law, as
it has been of the international order ever since. From this fundamental principle, it follows that no state has the right
to prevent the nationals of another state from using sea-lanes for the pursuit of trade. If trade was free, then the seas
on which they traded also were free. Portugal and Spain had no basis for abrogating that right by monopolizing the maritime
trade to Asia. Grotius would not accept their argument that they had earned the monopoly by dint of the work they did to carry
Christianity to the natives in those parts of the world where they traded. The duty of converting the heathen not only did
not trump freedom to trade; for Grotius, it was offensive to the principle that all should be treated equally. “Religious
belief does not do away with either natural or human law from which sovereignty is derived,” he stated. That people should
refuse to accept Christianity is “not sufficient cause to justify war upon them, or to despoil them of their goods.” Nor is
the expense to convert them to be redeemed by preventing other nations from trading with them. Armed with a hugely self-interested
interpretation of Grotius’s argument, the VOC allowed its captains to use force wherever they were blocked from trading.
The VOC directors also recognized that the best way to dominate the trade in porcelain was to acquire it through regular trade
channels, not steal it from other ships. They started informing their captains departing for Bantam that they should not think
of coming back without some Chinese porcelain. In 1608, they sent a shopping list: 50,000 butter dishes, 10,000 plates,
2,000 fruit dishes, and 1,000 each of salt cellars, mustard pots, and various wide bowls and large dishes, plus an unspecified
number of jugs and cups. This order represented a spike in demand that Chinese merchants at first failed to meet. Instead,
demand drove up prices. “The porcelain here comes generally so expensive,” noted the dismayed head of operations in Bantam
in a letter to the VOC directors in 1610. Worse, whenever a fleet of Dutch ships arrives in port, the Chinese merchants “immediately
run up the prices so much, that I cannot calculate a profit on them.” The only way to control this price volatility was to
stop all further purchases and negotiate improved supply with the Chinese. “We shall henceforth look out for porcelain and
try to contract with the Chinese that they bring a lot,” he wrote, “for what they have
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