LONG AGO, IN THE DAYS WHEN CAMELS CARRIED THEIR PRECIOUS CARGOES OVER THE SPICE ROUTES – the spice- merchants divided the world among themselves[1]. Each spice-merchant then created franchises within his allotted territory and hired kings to manage them. Each franchised king raised his own personal banner to mark off “his country” from the franchise of another.
He built castles and garrisoned them with soldiers to keep and police what
he had been assigned. Each king had to guarantee that the merchant’s goods would be safely transported and delivered to their destination and that the slaves that came with the king’s franchise did their allotted work. Each king permitted to keep a percentage of the take as his income.
The job of king was “the good life” and so it had many applicants. Each applicant bid against other applicants, each making all sorts of concessions to get the job.
On occasion, the people of the land, tired of being slaves, listened to their ancient god and demanded rights that had been taken from them by the king and his spice-merchant employer. Such revolts were expected reoccurring events and so preparations had been made to deal with them.
“Trade-priests” were the first line of defence. It was their job to bless that which the gods cursed. They were paid to say that the king and his employer were right and the people were wrong. This blessing of the priests was meant to keep the slaves happy and less likely to object to their slavery[2].