Note D — INTRODUCTORY NOTE

For the account which Grotius himself gives of the incident, see his Annales et Historiae de Rebus Belgicis ab Obitu Philippi Regis usque ad Inducias Anni 1609, written in 1612, but first published in 1658, Book 1, p. 429.

For a fuller account of the circumstances under which the treatise on the law of prize was written, see Hamaker’s edition of the De Jure Praedae, pp. vii-viii. The distinguished historian and scholar, Robert J. Fruin, after an exhaustive examination of the evidence, informed Hamaker that Grotius was retained by the Company to prepare the commentary on the law of prize. The English translation of Hamaker’s exact statement reads as follows: “Fruin is of the opinion that he [Grotius] undertook this work at the instance of the Company, and that he appeared in it as their spokesman.”

For an analysis of the commentary De Jure Praedae and the circumstances under which it was written, see Jules Basdevant’s study on Grotius, pp. 131-137, 155-179, in Pillet’s Les Fondateurs du Droit International (1904).