Some factors affecting the prosperity of trade in Ethiopia, 14th–18th Centuries

Abstract

Trade has long been one of the significant economic activities in the Ethiopian region and the Horn of Africa. However, some challenges had been hampering the development and prosperity of the trade. Thus, the main purpose of this article is to explore factors that affected the development and prosperity of trade in Ethiopia between the 14th and the 17th centuries. To carry out this study, both primary and secondary sources are employed. Using thematic analysis, a qualitative research approach, the study attempts to explore the factors that handicapped the development of trade in Ethiopia in the period understudy. This study revealed that the underdevelopment of trade during the period was not associated to a single factor. Rather factors like negative social attitude toward trade; the state’s limited control over the origin of items of trade; uncertain access to the Sea; the shift in the diplomacy of the state and limited diversity in the items of trade; and the absence of currency had contributed for the underdevelopment of trade. Thereby, this article argues that the limited growth of trade is associated with multiple factors which were hampering the commercial sector from attaining its utmost level of prosperity.

Keywords:

• Trade
• Ethiopia
• factors affecting trade
• underdevelopment

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Samuel Adu-Gyamfi, History and Political Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology College of Arts and Social Science, Kumasi, Ghana

SUBJECT:

• History
• African History
• Economic History

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The exact time when the Zagwe rulers took the power from the weak Aksumite kings has been controversial. As Butzer discussed, ‘by 800, Aksum had almost ceased to exist’. Some others argue that the transition took place in the mid of the eleventh century. See Sergew Hable Sellassie. 1972. Ancient and medieval Ethiopian history to 1270. Haile Selassie I University Press, Addis Ababa.

2 Some pieces of evidence, like the Periplus of Erythrean Sea, provide us information about the trading activities that had been conducted in the Ethiopian region and the Red Sea area since the beginning of the first century AD (Dombrowski, 1984; Fiaccadori, 2010). Very secured and protected trade had been conducted during the Aksumite period through the port of Adulis, and a significant portion of income was collected by the rulers from this trade (Abir, 1968a). Even after the decline of Aksum, trade continued, on different occasions, to bring significant amount of income for rulers of different states of the region that came later.

3 We can comprehend that the trade of the eastern Ethiopian region would have inevitably been conducted through this port. Yet the role of the port in facilitating the trade of the interior Ethiopian region had continued to be minimal.

4 In fact, according to Ludolf, the dominant merchants of Ethiopian trade during his time, the seventeenth century, were the Armenians, and the Muslim merchants come next.

5 With regard to this, the Ph.D. theses of Guluma Gemeda and Tesema Ta’a are relevant to see. Guluma Gemeda (1996, pp. 49–56). According to Tessema Ta’a, the expansion, and resettlement, of the Limmu Oromo into the kingdom of Enarya had been conducted in the second half of the sixteenth century. See Tessema Ta’a (1986).

6 Although Emperor Zӓr’a Ya’eqob was able to ensure direct control over the Red Sea coast and the trade around it, by establishing the office of the Bahǝr nӓgaš (ruler of the sea), it was difficult to restore the Aksumite supremacy over the region.

7 The Ottomans’ plan of controlling the interior plateau since the late period of the sixteenth century after they realized the difficulty of controlling the interior and partly due to their defeat by the force of Emperor Sӓrṣӓ-Dəngəl in the meantime.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mengistie Zewdu Tessema

Mengistie Zewdu Tessema is a lecturer of History and Heritage Management at the Department of History and Heritage Management, College of Social Science and Humanities, Woldia University, Ethiopia. He completed his BA and MA degrees from Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia. He has published several articles in reputable international journals. His main research interests include Ethiopian History, Heritage Studies, Tourism Studies, Economic History and Cultural Economics.

Wondemeneh Adera Ayalew

Wondemeneh Adera Ayalew is a lecturer of History and Heritage Management at the Department of History and Heritage Management, College of Social Science and Humanities, Woldia University, Ethiopia. He completed his BA and MA degrees in History from Arba Minch and Bahir Dar Universities respectively. His research interests include Ethiopian History, History of Ideas, Philosophy of History and Economic History.