Already by 20 years or so after the city's foundation, therefore, Addis Abeba had attained the same population size as early 16th Century London, though with important differences in the nature of these two city populations. London had grown slowly over the centuries and contained many merchants and craftsmen; Addis Abeba rose suddenly as a political and military centre and its merchants and craftsmen were at first few. By the mid-16th Century, London was an important market, drawing upon many parts of England for its food supply.  If size of population alone had been the only consideration, Addis Abeba ought also to have provided an important market for food and to have been acting as a factor for change.

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