THE JURIDICAL' CONTROVERSIES 



339 



iafc time and the pleas of Grotius had so much success are not 

 lifficult to discover. The period was characterised by a great 

 expansion of commercial enterprise. The Western Powers of 

 Europe, and above all the United Provinces, were pushing into 

 sea for the sake of traffic and gain. In some directions 

 le trading adventurers found their way barred by claims to 

 ire clausum and monopoly of trade ; in other directions it 

 ras open to them only under heavy burdens and aggravating 

 sstrictions. The northern seas, in theory at least, were closed 

 the whaling vessels engaged in what was then a most valu- 

 ible business ; and commerce and fishing within them were per- 

 litted only under irksome conditions. The passage through 

 le Sound into the Baltic was subjected to high dues by Den- 

 lark; Venice claimed dominion in the Adriatic and levied 

 iposts for the right of navigation there, and Genoa followed 

 ler example in the Ligurian Sea. But it was not so much the 

 claim of Denmark to the sovereignty of the northern seas, or 

 rights asserted by Venice in the Adriatic, that led to the 

 outburst for the freedom of the sea and of commercial inter- 

 >urse at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Except 

 nth regard to English traffic with Iceland and Norway and the 

 shing there, more or less regulated by treaties, the Scan- 

 lavian claim at this time was not of great practical import- 

 ice; and the dominion of Venice over the Adriatic was 

 merally regarded as beneficial on the whole, by interposing a 

 >werful barrier to the further extension of the Turkish empire 

 Europe, and by facilitating the suppression of pirates and 

 iracens. 1 It was the extravagant pretensions of Spain and 

 D ortugal to a monopoly of navigation and commerce with the 

 Tew World and the East Indies that constituted the great 

 obstacle to the new spirit of commercial enterprise. Founding 

 leir title on the Bulls of the Pope, and the right of discovery, 

 mquest, and prior occupation, they arrogated to themselves 

 le exclusive sovereignty of the great oceans which were the 

 ithways to these immense regions, the Atlantic, the Indian 

 ;ean, and parts of the Pacific. Thus, as Grotius remarked, 

 le whole Ocean except a little was to remain under the control 

 two nations, and all the other nations of the earth were to 

 content themselves with the remnant. 



1 Meadows, Observations, p. 3. Raleigh, A Discourse on the Invention of Ships. 



