"All goes well, Your Majesty," said the King's advisor, bowing before his master. "The trade route with Egypt brings much wealth into our lands; where once our spices and incense sat in storehouses awaiting use, now they travel to distant Egypt in exchange for cotton, grains, papyrus, and gold coin. The wealth generated by this mercantile trade is greatly improving the living standard of your great kingdom, Majesty; you were wise in promoting the cultivation of frankincense and myrrh. They shall make your kingdom richer than any the world has ever seen!" The vizier bowed and backed away from the throne.
The King was pleased. His plan had paid off; Saba was growing wealthy off its spices and incense. His other economic and agrarian policies had also worked: water-collection, successful; irrigation, successful; demilitarization, successful. Saba was poised to become a land of great prosperity. But the King realized that one trade route, however lucrative, was not enough. Relying on one route left a kingdom vulnerable to war, natural calamity, and economic decline. More commercial routes were needed, with more nations, to bring more gold and silver flowing into the ports of Saba.
"We enjoy a good relationship with the Egyptians, but surely they are not the only other civilized people in the world. I have heard, as we all have, the rumors of the great Northern Kingdom... but such a country has proved elusive, too far beyond the fiery desert. I ask you, vizier, what other people's are there with whom we can trade? What lies, for instance, beyond the eastern desert, or the Sea?"
"Well, sire, beyond the eastern desert lies the edge of the world, where the Gods dwell. I do not suppose it is wise to try to sell incense to the Gods. Beyond the Sea, though, are peoples who are said to rival the Egyptians in wisdom, wealth, and civilization; people of dark skin, who speak a strange foreign tongue. Axumites, I think they are called, after the city in which they dwell. There is also another kingdom, I believe it is called Punt, which is similar to these Axumites, but farther east. They too are said to be highly civilized. There is danger, though; between these two kingdoms dwell barbarian nomads, like the bedouin of the desert, with whom trade would be unwise."
"Well, then we shall avoid these nomads. Arrange for emissaries to travel to the courts of Axum and Punt. I wish to establish formalized trading relationships with these kingdoms, to further enrich our country and lessen our dependence on the Egyptian trade."
To Axum, Punt:
Hail, black-skinned men beyond the Sea! I, the King of Saba, greet you. With my emissaries I have sent gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which I believe you will find pleasing. This is just a small example of the wealth which we possess in Saba, and of the luxury goods which could be flowing through your own lands and enriching your lives. We wish to establish trade routes with your fair kingdoms, that we might profit together. We have incense, spices, and other luxuries in abundance, which could be yours in exchange for the products of your own lands. What do you say, foreign Kings?
Saba Orders:
-Expand northwest into the Hejaz
-Expand east along the Yemenese coast; attempt to convince the town in western Oman to join the Kingdom of Saba by informing them of the wealth, power, culture, high-living-standard, advanced agriculture, and other benefits of the Kingdom. If they refuse, no hard feelings, just give them some nice gifts and stop expanding in that direction, allowing them their independence if they want it. Make it clear to them from the beginning that that is what we will do if they don't join us.
-Continue the irrigation and rain-collection program throughout the Kingdom; especially concentrate on bringing this development to newly-occupied lands
-Give some nice gifts of gold, frankincense, myrrh, and local spices to the Kings and nobility of Axum and Punt
-Grow economy by further developing the incense and spice trades, and through increasingly well-developed agriculture