CAPVT XIII
Batavis ius commercii Indicani qua pace, qua indutiis, qua bello retinendum
Quare cum et ius et aequum postulet, libera nobis ita ut cuiquam esse Indiae commercia, superest, ut sive cum Hispanis pax, sive indutiae fiunt, sive bellum manet, omnino eam, quam a natura habemus libertatem tueamur. Nam ad pacem quod attinet, notum est eam esse duorum generum: aut enim pari foedere, aut impari coitur. Graeci[178a] istam vocant συνθήκην ἐξ ἴσου hanc σπονδὰς ἐξ ἐπιταγμάτων illa virorum est, haec ingeniorum servilium. Demosthenes in oratione de libertate Rhodiorum:[179a] καί τοι χρὴ τοὺς βουλομένους ἐλευθέρους εἶναι τὰς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιταγμάτων συνθήκας φεύγειν, ὡς ἐγγὺς δουλείας οὔσας, ‘eos qui volunt esse liberi oportet omnes condiciones quibus leges imponuntur ita fugere tamquam quae proximae sunt servituti’. Tales autem sunt omnes quibus pars altera in iure suo imminuitur, iuxta Isocratis definitionem[180a] vocantis τὰ τοὺς ἑτέρους ἐλαττοῦντα παρὰ τὸ δίκαιον. Si enim, ut inquit Cicero,[181a] ‘suscipienda bella sunt ob eam causam, ut sine iniuria in pace vivatur’, sequitur eodem auctore*, pacem esse vocandam, non pactionem servitutis, sed tranquillam libertatem; quippe cum et Philosophorum et Theologorum
CHAPTER XIII
The Dutch must maintain their right of trade with the East Indies by peace, by treaty, or by war
Wherefore since both law and equity demand that trade with the East Indies be as free to us as to any one else, it follows that we are to maintain at all hazards that freedom which is ours by nature, either by coming to a peace agreement with the Spaniards, or by concluding a treaty, or by continuing the war. So far as peace is concerned, it is well known that there are two kinds of peace, one made on terms of equality, the other on unequal terms. The Greeks[178] call the former kind a compact between equals, the latter an enjoined truce; the former is meant for high souled men, the latter for servile spirits. Demosthenes in his speech on the liberty of the Rhodians[179] says that it was necessary for those who wished to be free to keep away from treaties which were imposed upon them, because such treaties were almost the same as slavery. Such conditions are all those by which one party is lessened in its own right, according to the definition of Isocrates.[180] For if, as Cicero says,[181] wars must be undertaken in order that people may live in peace unharmed, it follows that peace ought to mean not an agreement which entails slavery, but an undisturbed liberty, especially as peace and justice according to