Addis Ababa was certainly big enough, soon after its foundation, to provide a market for Shoa at least, Accounts by foreigners noted the large area covered by Addis Ababa, though they also noted that the city at first resembled “nothing so much as a  huge camp” (as indeed it was) and Addis Ababa remained throughout our period in many respects a collection of contiguous villages. This village character dominates the sefers of Addis Ababa to some extent of course even today.
 

Source: Research by David Chapple, made before the 1974 revolution