In the interior of Bulgaria and Upper Moesia, the low price of
provision and cattle of every description is almost fabulous compared
with the prices of Western Europe. A fat sheep or lamb usually costs
from 1s. 6d. to 2s.; an ox, 40s.; cows, 30s.; and a horse, in the best
possible travelling condition, from L.4 to L.5 sterling; wool, hides,
tallow, wax, and honey, are equally low. In the towns and hans by the
road-side everything is sold by weight: you can get a pound of meat
for a halfpenny, a pound of bread for the same, and wine, which is
also sold by weight, costs about the same money. In Servia, pigs
everywhere form the staple commodity of the country. I have seen some
that, would weigh from 150 lbs. to 200 lbs. or more offered for sale
at 300 Turkish piastres the dozen; in the neighbourhood of the Danube
they fetch a little more. The expense of keeping these animals in a
country abounding with forests being so trifling, and the prospect of
gain to the proprietor so certain, we cannot wonder that no landowner
is without them, and that they constitute the richest class in the
principality. In fact, pig-jobbers are here men of the highest rank:
the prince, his ministers, civil and military governors, are all
engaged in this lucrative traffic.--_Spencer's Travels._