Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition | Page 5

produces the famous Kavala growth, is more adapted to the
cultivation of the plant. The rose-fields of Kazanlyk and Karlovo lie in
the sheltered valleys between the Balkans and the parallel chains of the
Sredna Gora and Karaja Dagh. About 6000 lb of the rose-essence is
annually exported, being valued from £12 to £14 per lb. Beetroot is
cultivated in the neighbourhood of Sofia. Sericulture, formerly an
important industry, has declined owing to disease among the silkworms,
but efforts are being made to revive it with promise of success. Cotton
is grown in the southern districts of Eastern Rumelia.
Peasant proprietorship is universal, the small freeholds averaging about
18 acres each. There are scarcely any large estates owned by
individuals, but some of the monasteries possess considerable domains.
The large tchifliks, or farms, formerly belonging to Turkish landowners,
have been divided among the peasants. The rural proprietors enjoy the
right of pasturing their cattle on the common lands belonging to each
village, and of cutting wood in the state forests. They live in a
condition of rude comfort, and poverty is practically unknown, except
in the towns. A peculiarly interesting feature in Bulgarian agricultural
life is the zadruga, or house-community, a patriarchal institution
apparently dating from prehistoric times. Family groups, sometimes
numbering several dozen persons, dwell together on a farm in the
observance of strictly communistic principles. The association is ruled
by a house-father (domakin, stareïshina), and a house-mother
(domakinia), who assign to the members their respective tasks. In
addition to the farm work the members often practise various trades,
the proceeds of which are paid into the general treasury. The
community sometimes includes a priest, whose fees for baptisms, &c.,
augment the common fund. The national aptitude for combination is
also displayed in the associations of market gardeners (gradinarski
druzhini, taifi), who in the spring leave their native districts for the
purpose of cultivating gardens in the neighbourhood of some town,
either in Bulgaria or abroad, returning in the autumn, when they divide
the profits of the enterprise; the number of persons annually thus
engaged probably exceeds 10,000. Associations for various agricultural,

mining and industrial undertakings and provident societies are
numerous: the handicraftsmen in the towns are organized in esnafs or
gilds.
Manufactures.--The development of manufacturing enterprise on a
large scale has been retarded by want of capital. The principal
establishments for the native manufactures of aba and shayak (rough
and fine homespuns), and of gaitan (braided embroidery) are at Sliven
and Gabrovo respectively. The Bulgarian homespuns, which are made
of pure wool, are of admirable quality. The exportation of textiles is
almost exclusively to Turkey: value in 1806, £104,046; in 1898,
£144,726; in 1904, £108,685. Unfortunately the home demand for
native fabrics is diminishing owing to foreign competition; the smaller
textile industries are declining, and the picturesque, durable, and
comfortable costume of the country is giving way to cheap ready-made
clothing imported from Austria. The government has endeavoured to
stimulate the home industry by ordering all persons in its employment
to wear the native cloth, and the army is supplied almost exclusively by
the factories at Sliven. A great number of small distilleries exist
throughout the country; there are breweries in all the principal towns,
tanneries at Sevlievo, Varna, &c., numerous corn-mills worked by
water and steam, and sawmills, turned by the mountain torrents, in the
Balkans and Rhodope. A certain amount of foreign capital has been
invested in industrial enterprises; the most notable are sugar-refineries
in the neighbourhood of Sofia and Philippopolis, and a cotton-spinning
mill at Varna, on which an English company has expended about
£60,000.
Commerce.--The usages of internal commerce have been considerably
modified by the development of communications. The primitive system
of barter in kind still exists in the rural districts, but is gradually
disappearing. The great fairs (panaïri, [Greek: panêgureis]) held at
Eski-Jumaia, Dobritch and other towns, which formerly attracted
multitudes of foreigners as well as natives, have lost much of their
importance; a considerable amount of business, however, is still
transacted at these gatherings, of which ninety-seven were held in 1898.
The principal seats of the export trade are Varna, Burgas and Baltchik

on the Black Sea, and Svishtov, Rustchuk, Nikopolis, Silistria,
Rakhovo, and Vidin on the Danube. The chief centres of distribution
for imports are Varna, Sofia, Rustchuk, Philippopolis and Burgas.
About 10% of the exports passes over the Turkish frontier, but the
government is making great efforts to divert the trade to Varna and
Burgas, and important harbour works have been carried out at both
these ports. The new port of Burgas was formally opened in 1904, that
of Varna in 1906.
In 1887 the total value of Bulgarian foreign commerce was £4,419,589.
The following table gives the values for the six years ending 1904. The
great fluctuations in the exports are