affirmative et negative procedit, ut docet Vasquius. Nec enim quod libere feci facere cogor, nec quod non feci omittere.
Alioquin quid esset absurdius quam ex eo quod singuli non possumus cum singulis semper contrahere, salvum nobis in posterum non esse ius cum illis, si usus tulerit, contrahendi? Idem Vasquius et illud rectissime, ne infinito quidem tempore effici, ut quid necessitate potius, quam sponte factum videatur.
Probanda itaque Lusitanis foret coactio, quae tamen ipsa cum hac in re iuri naturae sit contraria, et omni hominum generi noxia, ius facere non potest.[166a] Deinde illa coactio durasse debuit per tempus, cuius initii non exstet memoria; id vero tantum hinc abest, ut ne centum quidem anni exierint, ex quo tota fere negotiatio Indica penes Venetos fuit, per Alexandrinas traiectiones.[167a] Debuit etiam talis esse coactio, cui restitum non sit. At restiterunt Galli et Angli, aliique. Neque sufficit aliquos esse coactos, sed ut omnes coacti sint requiritur, cum per unum non coactum servetur in causa communi libertatis possessio. Arabes autem et Sinenses a saeculis aliquot ad hunc usque diem perpetuo cum Indis negotiantur.
Nihil prodest ista usurpatio.
This, as Vasquez points out, acts both affirmatively and negatively. For I am not compelled to do what I have hitherto done of my own free will, nor am I compelled to stop doing what I have never done.
What moreover could be more absurd than to deduce from the fact that we as individuals are not able always to conclude a bargain with other individuals, that there is not preserved to us for the future the right of bargaining with them if opportunity shall have offered? The same Vasquez has also most justly said that not even the lapse of infinite time establishes a right which seems to have arisen from necessity rather than choice.
Therefore in order to establish a prescriptive right to the trade with the East Indies the Portuguese would be compelled to prove coercion. But since in such a case as this coercion is contrary to the law of nature and obnoxious to all mankind, it cannot establish a right.[166] Next, that coercion must needs have been in existence for so long a time that “the memory of its beginning does not exist”; that, however, is so far from being the case that not even a hundred years had elapsed since the Venetians controlled nearly the entire trade with the East Indies, carrying it via Alexandria.[167] Again, the coercion ought to have been such that it was not resisted; but the English and the French and other nations besides, did resist it. Finally, it is not sufficient that some be coerced, but it is indispensable that all be coerced, because the possession of freedom of trade is preserved to all by a failure to use coercion upon even one person. Moreover, the Arabians and the Chinese are at the present day still carrying on with the people of the East Indies a trade which has been uninterrupted for several centuries.
Portuguese usurpation is worthless.