_Trade with the East Indies does not belong to the Portuguese by
title of occupation_
Neither discovery nor occupation [which have been fully treated
in Chapters II and V], is to be invoked on the point here under
consideration, because the right of carrying on trade is not
something corporal, which can be physically seized; nor would
discovery or occupation help the case of the Portuguese even if
they had been the very first persons to trade with the East Indies,
although such a claim would be entirely untenable and false. For
since in the beginning peoples set out along different paths, it was
necessary that some become the first traders, nevertheless it is
absolutely certain that those traders did not on that account acquire
any rights. Wherefore if the Portuguese have any right by virtue of
which they _alone_ may trade with the East Indies, that right like
other servitudes ought to arise from concession, either express or
tacit, that is to say, from prescription. Otherwise no such right can
exist.
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CAPVT X
_Mercaturam cum Indis propriam non esse Lusitanorum titulo donationis
Pontificiae_
Concessit nemo, nisi forte Pontifex, qui non potuit.[163a] Nemo
enim quod suum non est concedere potest. At Pontifex, nisi totius
Mundi temporalis sit Dominus, quod negant sapientes, ius etiam
commerciorum universale sui iuris dicere non potest. Maxime vero
cum res sit ad solum quaestum accommodata, nihilque ad spiritualem
procurationem pertinens, extra quam cessat, ut fatentur omnes,
Pontificia potestas. Praeterea si Pontifex solis illud Lusitanis ius
tribuere vellet idemque adimere hominibus ceteris, duplicem faceret
iniuriam: Primum Indis, quos ut extra Ecclesiam positos Pontifici
nulla ex parte subditos esse diximus. His igitur cum nihil quod
ipsorum est adimere possit Pontifex, etiam ius illud quod habent cum
quibuslibet negotiandi adimere non potuit. Deinde aliis hominibus
omnibus Christianis et non Christianis, quibus idem illud ius adimere
non potuit sine causa indicta. Quid quod ne temporales quidem Domini
in suis imperiis prohibere possunt commerciorum libertatem, uti
rationibus et auctoritatibus ante demonstratum est?
Sicut et illud confitendum est, contra ius perpetuum naturae
gentiumque, unde ista libertas originem sumpsit in omne tempus
duratura, nullam valere Pontificis auctoritatem.
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