Cyber Ethiopia

This on-going series of articles presents excerpts from historically interesting accounts of Ethiopian markets, and merchants, as seen over the centuries. mainly by foreign observers. Taxes: Market Dues Merchants in traditional Ethiopia faced many problems, many of which resulted from the various taxes to which they were subjected. These were levied either by the provincial rulers of the lands in which they traded, or else by a special official called a negadras, to whom the chief farmed out the right to collect the taxes in return for a fixed yearly sum. The object of the latter functionary was then, as British Consul Walter Plowden says, to "screw" as much as he could from the merchants. The division of the revenue between the chief and the negadras was

by no means uniform, as the Englishman Nathaniel Pearce early in the century reported. At Adwa for example the governor, in addition to the fixed rent from the negadras, also received two-thirds of the duty on imported goods, slaves, ivory and civet, while the customs official kept all the tax on cotton. At Antalo, on the other hand, the governor took one-third of the tax on slaves, horses, mules, and ivory, and the entire tax on salt. A group of traders inland from Massawa -a nineteenth century engraving Persons with the rank of negadras were to be found at the six most important commercial markets of northern Ethiopia, namely Adwa, Debareq, Gondar, Soqota, Darita and Ajubay, as well as at Aleyu Amba in Shawa. All but one of these officials were Muslims. The exception was the customs-man at Debareq, the least important of the above markets, who was a Christian. The names of two of these officials are preserved: Zeynu at Adwa, who paid a "large" annual rent to the provincial ruler Dejazmach Webe, and a certain Abubeker at Aleyu Amba, who came from Argobba. Internal Customs Posts Merchants travelling across the country were obliged to pay taxes at a considerable number of customs posts, usually referred to as kella. According to the German scientist Ruppell, there were no less than eleven such places on the trade route from Gondar to Massawa. Traders making their way from Enarya to the coast on the other hand encountered anything between eighteen and twenty-eight. "Custom-houses, or rather passes, have been established," Plowden reports, "on every spot where Nature... has confined the road to some narrow defile, not to be avoided without an immense detour, if at all, and near some commanding elevation where a good look-out can be stationed at a brook fordable at one spot". "Varied Greatly..." Dues, which varied greatly from one kella to another, were mainly paid in kind. At one customs post in Tegre every porter-load was said, by Henry Salt, to have paid two handfuls of pepper, and every donkey-load two pieces of blue cloth. At another post the tax on cloth was five or six berelle, or glass bottles, and some Surat cloth or other articles. At a third post there was a tax of half a [Maria Theresa] dollar or a piece of cloth and a handful of pepper on every donkey-load, and of a quarter of a dollar on every slave or hornful of civet. Taxes, the French travellers Ferret and Galinier confirm, were seldom paid in cash, but more often in such articles as pepper, red cloth, blue ribbon, silk or tobacco... The existence of such customs posts, though of crucial importance for provincial rulers, was a constant source of inconvenience and irritation for the merchants. There were frequent quarrels, the French Scientific Mission of the 1840s reports, between the traders and the ax collectors, mainly as a result of the real or alleged smuggling of gold or civet. Disputes sometimes lasted several months, particularly when the officials were not too pressed for money, and the merchants not in too much of a hurry. "Very animated quarrels", Ferret and Galinier declare, were common, and were in some instances brought to an end only through the intervention of the monarch, who was, however, in most cases too to far away to give prompt judgment. Difficulties The difficulties which might confront a merchant travelling inland across Tegre, then ruled by Dajazmach Webe, to the great market of Basso in southern Gojjam, are graphically described by Plowden. He explains that the trader had first to pay a tax to the Ottoman authorities at Massawa after which he had to engage a guide, from among the Saho people living in the mountains inland, who, depending on the traveller's wealth, might charge anything between half a Maria Theresa thaler and ten Maria Theresa thalers. Then: "Legalised Plunder" "arriving ... in Oubea's dominions he will be stopped four or five times before he reaches Adowah [Adwa], and on each occasion must arrange with those in charge of the tolls as best he can as regards payment, the amount being arbitrary, and the system in fact one of legalised plunder. "On arrival at Adowah he pays certain more regulated duties to the Negadeh Ras of the town, a douceur, moreover, being expected as the price of a friendly settlement of dues. "After meeting the exactions of several minor posts he will next pay at the town of Doobaruk, in the Province of Waggara, duties on the same scale with those of Adowah, generally about one dollar per load of merchandise, and being then clear of the territories of Dejazmach Oobeay, enters those of Ras Ali whose tolls commence at Gondar. Here the duties are nominally somewhat settled, though long disputes almost inevitably occur, and after three or more detentions and payments on a smaller scale in Begemder, he passes the [Blue] Nile, and arrives in the domains of the chiefs of Gojam or Damot. These may be in a state of rebellion or of sulky submission to the Ras: as in the latter case they pay him a fixed tribute, he does not interfere with their toll-levying, and the merchant must disburse at some eight or ten more stages of his ere he can reach Basso. It is needless to dwell on the danger to the merchant in the case of revolted Chiefs, who plunder indiscriminately, and from whom, even if captured, the recovery of any property is hopeless". Market Dues In addition to such taxes there were also market dues which were exacted on goods brought for sale. At Gondar for example every slave, horse or mule taken to market had to pay, according to Pearce, two drams of gold, or the equivalent of two dollars; every large tusk of ivory, one waqet, or ounce; and every porter-load, six drams. A generation or so later Ruppell found that mule and donkey-loads, at Gondar, paid ten Maria Theresa thalers, and porter-loads half us much. At Adwa, on the other hand, Pearce reported that every mule or donkey-load of imports was subject to a tax of half an ounce of gold, or goods to that amount, and porter-loads of tusks two and half drams, or matchlocks paid half an ounce. Each porter-load of cotton was charged two pieces of cloth, each equal to two dollars, as well as a pound of cloth. Gold was subject to special taxation. Before being sold it had to be weighed by a specially appointed official, who for every ounce collected two bars of salt at Gondar and Soqota, four at Antalo, and a quarter of a piece of cloth at Adwa. Persons bringing in goods for sale were also often taxed, as at Aleyu Amba, where they had to make a payment either in kind or in salt. The result, according to the British traveller Charles Johnston, was that "large heaps" of amoles and market produce accumulated "around the feet of the Governor", whose "perquisites of office" they appeared to be. Persons attending the market regularly, on the other hand, made "a fixed payment of one to three bars of salt a week", but the people of the town were "exempted from any imposition of toll". "I Had Myself..." Market taxes were sometimes allotted to specific courtiers or other personalities. At Antalo, for example, Pearce reports: "The duty on salt... is distributed among the favourites of the household; the governor's or Ras's wives have a certain quantity, and others of his favourites and relatives a proportionate allowance... The salt is considered a gift to one of the favourites about the Ras's person". Pearce spoke from personal knowledge, for he explains: "I had myself, from the latter end of the year 1805 till 1808, six pieces of salt allowed to me every Wednesday, which was market-day... afterwards my allowance was raised to ten, till 1810, from which time... it was augmented to twenty, but shortly afterwards... the Ras thought properly to order a yearly allowance... of one thousand pieces of salt, instead of our receiving it weekly at the toll".