Hugo Grotius, the Portuguese, and Free Trade in the East Indies

by Peter Borschberg

In 1603, Dutch Admiral Jakob van Heemskerk plundered a Portuguese merchantman, the Santa Catarina, travelling from Macao to Melaka. The sale of the cargo at a public auction made traders across Northern Europe aware of the riches to be reaped from Asian trade. However, the episode raised legal questions and the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) commissioned the young Hugo Grotius to defend Heemskerk's actions. Grotius produced two classic legal texts, The Law of Price and Booty and its spin-off, The Free Sea, among the greatest works in the history of international legal and political thought. His observations dealt with free trade in the East Indies, the Dutch Republic's military conflict with the Portuguese and Spanish in Asia, and the legal and moral grounds for attacking and plundering Portuguese and Spanish mercantile shipping. This book considers the background to the treaties then content and significances, and what Grotius actually knew about Southeast Asian politics and Portuguese institutions of trade and diplomacy when he wrote them. Grotius' work on the freedom of the sea was a cornerstone in his enduring reputation as one of the founders of modern international law. The present book provides a valuable resource for historians of Southeast Asia and for students of international relations, political theory, maritime history and public law.

450 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2010

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's start by who should read this book? Anyone curious about the early years of exploration in Southeast Asia or Portuguese, Spanish or English maritime history, or the history of free trade, ... or in my case, guides in a museum that features early B&W Chinese export ceramics and doesn't know what sparked "China Mania' in Europe in the early 1600s. The answer was the arrival of a Portuguese ship in Holland that had been captured by the Dutch in 1603 off the coasts of Johor and Singapore, laden with Chinese ceramics. That single event raised a mountain of questions that Hugo Grotius, a Dutch thinker of his time, was hired to answer on behalf of the United Dutch East India Company (or VOC), the story of which Professor Borschberg--a leading light in Singapore's National University--answers so fully and deliciously that this academic tome was to me, a page-turner.

Do not let the 481 pages of this book deter you; only the first 169 are the story; the remaining pages provide you with document appendices, notes, bibliography and index--in which, to my amusement, the word "ceramics" does not even appear. Yet it was the capture of this Portuguese ship (the Santa Catarina), by the Dutch (led by then-Captain Jakob van Heemskerk), at the bequest of the King of Johor, and the plundering of the ceramic cargo that was the spark that raised the questions that Hugo Grotius sought to answer: "the blurred division between permissible commercial practices and outright piracy" ... that in turn raised questions concerning the role of religion, Holland and England's relationship with one another, the treatment of the peoples in the claimed lands of European powers, even the unresolved 'Greenland fishery dispute'.

As for poor Hugo Grotius, with his attempts to answer such issues, he ended up in life imprisonment, from which he escaped, only to flee and eventually die of apparent injuries suffered while at sea off the coast of Sweden. Borschberg discusses "Grotius' working habits, including also his lapses, omissions and weaknesses." But this superb, richly researched volume also explores "his originality, his impact in Southeast Asia and in Europe as well on the theories of war, peace, alliance-making, sovereignty and the freedom of trade' (p. 19), with writing so crisp that I lingered over every page. I never found my sought-after references to the cargo of the Santa Catarina, but it was a small price to pay for the larger, richer story that lies hidden within the showcase of those ceramics in the museum in which I guide.

As for the capture of the Santa Catarina, it marked the beginning of the end of Portugal's domination in Southeast Asia, as they were replaced by the Dutch and the British.

[Torsten Metzger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most interesting books about Grotius that I have read. Borschberg has carefully read and contextualized works like "Mare Liberum" (the Free Sea) as "De Jure Praedae Commentarius"(On the Law of Prize and Booty) as well as certain unpublished fragments and reading notes found in the Netherlands. He really gets his hands dirty by delving deep into the actual texts and especially also into archival materials. Borschberg is to my knowledge one of the few scholars today to have done so, for most researchers of Grotius confine themselves to a few main works and read them in translation. Borschberg's many years of research have also yielded unique insights into the Dutchman's working habits. Careful, forensic dissection of the texts have led him to draw some surprising conclusions that are all well-documented and supported by detailed footnotes. The final chapter of the book masterfully brings together the main themes to offer a brilliant and compelling summary of ideas about war, peace and sovereignty in Europe and South East Asia at the dawn of Dutch colonialism in the Indonesian Archipelago. Reviews published in academic journals have praised this study for its detail and innovative approach, as a real milestone in Grotius research. This is a book that will influence Grotius studies for many years to come. It also opens new perspectives for the study of states, statecraft and diplomacy in Southeast Asia during the early modern period. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the history of diplomacy and international relations.