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52 England and Holland whom alone it affected.

V. The stipulation in question occurs far less frequently in treaties than is often stated and supposed, and this on account of a confusion which I wish to point out. In the 16th century (as we have seen was the case in Francis I.'s marine Ordinance, and in those which succeeded it) the maritime nations often went beyond the equitable provisions of the Consolato del Mare, and not only forbade the neutral to undertake that part of the trade of the other belligerent which he did not possess in peace, but prohibited all trade with him. When subsequently in the two following centuries, 17th and 18th, commerce became more generally understood and of greater significance and importance, and commercial treaties began to be made between nations, it became customary to insert a clause mutually allowing "liberty to navigate freely without interruption," in time of war