Did mighty lords, with large grain surpluses in their stores, add to their incomes by selling at least part of these surpluses on the Addis Ababa food market? The grain prices, quoted in Berhanena Selam of 23/4/17 E.C. (1.1.25 G.C.), suggest that it would not really have been profitable to do so. Taking white teff at six qunna (one qunna=c.5 kilos) a thaler, it would have meant selling 3000 kilos of grain to make 100 thalers. Such prices surely would not have been attractive enough to induce lords to sell grain, especially as they could get from other sources (rent of shops etc.) the cash they needed. Most of the grain and other foodstuffs coming on the Addis Abeba market must have been sold by traveling merchants, or by peasants. Peasants sold supplies because they needed cash to buy commodities they needed and because, to an increasing extent, government exactions in kind and corves were being replaced by taxation in money.    

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