1. I do not presume to utter new things, but to arouse the minds of Spaniards to follow the examples of the other nations, to which end I have drawn from the works on history, both ancient and modern, what confirms this idea. [This chapter is interesting, but the limits of our space make it preferable to omit most of it, as having but slight connection with our main subject; the following sections are worth retaining.]
17. In the fifteenth century was begun the manufacture of woolen stuffs [paños] in Inglaterra; for before that they sold (as we are now doing) their woolens to other nations, especially to the Flemings and the people of Brabant—from whom some seditious persons went over to the said kingdom, about the year 1420, and taught manufactures to the English. Monsieur de Thou,[21] however, attributes this establishment [of a new industry] to Queen Isabel [i.e., Elizabeth], and to the disturbances, on account of religion, in which the great Duke de Alva and the Inquisition of España were insulted—without having borne in mind, when he allowed his pen to move with the envious and bitter temper that swayed him, that, many years before the revolution of some of the seventeen [Netherlands] provinces which threw off the mild yoke of the Spaniards, the artisans of Lovaina [i.e., Louvain] had already introduced the manufacture of woolen stuffs in Londres.
18. The French, who in the opinion of Cardinal Richelieu were totally unfitted for commerce, have made with it and navigation the most felicitous progress, especially since the reign of Louis Fourteenth.
19. Nor must I omit the height of glory and power to which the empire of the Muscovites has been raised since the reign of the great Czar Peter. That nation was ferocious, barbarous, and slothful, and had no intercourse with other and foreign nations. That glorious monarch formed the design of civilizing the vassals of his Russian empire, and of turning their inclinations toward political affairs, the sciences, the fine arts, and the great advantages which result from so praiseworthy occupations; but [even] his uncommon intellect found no other means [for this] than that of navigation and commerce. But he went incognito to Inglaterra and Holanda, under pretext of renewing certain treaties, but in reality with the idea of gaining instruction in those two sciences, which were his only aim. In this he actually succeeded, by dint of immense labor and mechanical occupations, which, if apparently they were unworthy of a prince, were afterward (as they still are) those which most enhanced his glory. Not to linger over what is well known, I conclude with what is to my purpose: that the great Czar Peter established commerce in his empire, overcoming insuperable difficulties; and from the year 1697 (which is the real date of that enterprise) to the present time so marvelous has been the progress of that empire that its forces by sea and land, its wealth and products, its manufactures, its vassals transformed from barbarians into civilized beings, learned men, and politicians, yield to [those of] no other power—all being due to commerce, which in the short time of sixty-seven years has wrought these apparently incredible prodigies.
20. The Swedes and Danes[22] also have made much progress through this means; and the Portuguese, glorious in their conquests and discoveries, have constantly declined ever since they neglected navigation and commerce, regarding these as occupations unworthy of their nobility.[23]
21. Almost the same has happened to our España; what fear, what respect, what terror, did not our armadas inspire in the four quarters of the world? There was no power that could resist them; but, not to linger on the glories of our nation, I leave that to the histories which relate them—especially those of the reigns of the pious king Don Fernando, the Catholic monarchs, the emperor Don Carlos Fifth, Don Phelipe Second, and Don Phelipe Fourth, who certainly protected navigation and commerce. I will assert [here] only what answers my purpose: that our navy declined, our great manufactures in Sevilla, Segovia, and other places retrograded, and our commerce deteriorated, with the continual wars; and, as we did not repair this damage, we were at the same time promoting the commerce of the other nations. These have made themselves rich through our negligence and inactivity—selling to us all the more commodities the more we abandoned manufactures, and with their gains increasing their shipping the more that we gave up shipbuilding—until in these latest reigns our shipping and commerce were reëstablished. But it is necessary to extend our commerce further, in proportion to our vast domains; otherwise, we keep them greatly exposed [to danger]. For it has been now thoroughly proved that navigation and commerce have rendered formidable and terrible the forces and power of the nations who have practiced them, as also that from the decay or neglect of these activities has proceeded the ruin of kingdoms.
Chapter Second: Of the liberty of the Spaniards to navigate by way of the Cape of Good Hope
1. Some may think that this navigation is prohibited to the Spaniards by the treaties of peace, and that on this account we have not established a commerce like that of the Dutch, English, French, Swedes, Danes, and other nations. But it is certain that there is no such prohibition, and that our natural inactivity, laziness, and lack of application to commerce, has been the cause of our not undertaking the aforesaid navigation, which is equally free to us as to all the other powers. For the prohibition that the Englishman, the Dutchman, and the rest can lay upon us is, that our ships may not enter their ports, just as they have been forbidden to enter our ports; but they cannot hinder us from navigating in all the seas of the world, in accordance with natural right and the law of nations. That law does not allow the dominion of the sea to any power, according to Grotius, Heinsius, and others—contrary to the Mare clausum [i.e., “closed sea”], of the Englishman Selden,[24] who in regard to the dispute of the year 1653 defended the [English] dominion of the White Sea, and the right of forbidding this navigation to the Dutch; but they maintained their freedom with powerful fleets, and with the same arguments which justify the freedom which the Spaniards possess for navigating by way of the Cape of Good Hope.
2. As the Dutch have always regarded these islands with suspicion, fearing some injury to their own commerce, they likewise have striven in every way to make amends for the damages which they fear. One of these is the extension of our commerce, because it diminishes their own; and, in order to hinder it, they have sometimes chosen to avail themselves of article 5 in the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, and of article 10 in that of Utrecht in 1714—in which is confirmed the said article 5, wherein it is provided that “the Spaniards shall retain their navigation to the Eastern Indias, in the same manner as they enjoy it at present, without being authorized to extend it further; as likewise the inhabitants of this Low Country [i.e., Netherlands] shall abstain from frequenting the places which the Castilians possess in the Eastern Indias.” From these expressions, and from the demarcation [made] by the supreme pontiff Alexander Sixth, the Dutch—who claim, by right of conquest, to enjoy the privileges and prerogatives of the Portuguese—try to argue that our ships have no right to navigate by way of the Cape of Good Hope, nor along the regions of Asia—the Coromandel Coast, Vengala, the Red Sea, etc.—intending that these Philipinas Islands shall be the limits of our navigation to the west.
3–8. [In section 3, it is shown that the demarcation of Alexander VI was made only to check possible disputes between the great Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal, and its provisions referred only to their discoveries of lands and isles, and not at all to the navigation of the sea, which no power can claim, “since it is not fitted for other dominion than that of God.” Section 4 shows that the Portuguese and Spaniards have frequented each other’s ports, without any difficulties arising between them over the navigation of those seas, which has not been and could not be forbidden to the Spaniards; and that even if the Portuguese had had any such exclusive right it could not pass over to the Dutch when they conquered the former nation in India, especially as privileges granted by the Holy See to its Catholic followers could not be claimed by Protestants. In section 5 it is asserted that the previously-cited article 5 of the treaty of Westphalia does not forbid navigation past the Cape of Good Hope, but only the entrance of Spaniards or Dutch into ports belonging to the other power; that navigation on the high seas is, “by natural right, free to all the world,” and the object of the treaty was to protect both powers in their respective possessions and commerce. As further proof of this, Viana cites (in his section 6) the Hague treaty of 1650, and comments on it in section 7. In the following section he shows how the Dutch are claiming what was never granted by Alexander VI, who separated only the conquests of Spain and Portugal, and not their navigations in the high seas, a distinction which has been observed in the practice of both countries, “who have freely navigated and traded through all the seas of the East and the West.” He claims that Japan and China “are, without doubt, included in the demarcation of Castilla.”]