Bulgaria e-book - iMedia

To King Ferdinand’s initiative also is due in a great measure the
movement to develop the spas of Bulgaria. The mountains abound in
medicinal springs of various kinds. Some of the most important have
been used in a primitive fashion since the Roman times, and under
the Turkish rule. Recently, the mining section of the Ministry of
Commerce and Agriculture has succeeded in developing the mineral
springs at Sliven, Banki, Varshetz, and Meritchléri. Modern healthresorts
have been built at Banki, Varshetz, Hissar, and Meritchléri.
There are, all in all, more than 200 hot and mineral springs in
Bulgaria in some eighty different places. In the department of Sofia
there are twenty-three, the hottest of which is Dolnia Bania. The town
of Sofia itself possesses very good hot springs. The municipality
has almost completed the building of public baths which will cost
£60,000.
Though it is far from the mind of the Bulgarian people to aim at
making their country another playground for the west of Europe,
there is no doubt at all but that in the future Bulgaria will attract,
yearly, thousands of tourists—in the winter for snow-sports; in the
spring and autumn for the scenery, the sport, the medicinal baths.
At the present time there is practically no tourist traffic. Travellers
wishing to explore early a new country may be confident of getting
in the capital, Sofia, excellent hotel accommodation, and in the chief
towns, such as Stara Zagora and Philippopolis, decent and clean
accommodation. But to see Bulgaria properly it is necessary to take
to horseback or wagon. At the capital it is possible to engage guides
who speak English, and to hire horses or oxen for transport at an
astonishingly cheap rate. The horse-carts of the country are springless
and not too comfortable. The ox-wagons, also springless, are quite
comfortable, as the oxen move along smoothly and without jerking. I
have slept quite soundly in a Bulgarian ox-wagon as it crawled over
roadless country at night.
Mainly an agricultural country, Bulgaria grows wheat, maize,
barley, rye, oats, millet, spelt, rice (around Philippopolis), potatoes,
grapes, tobacco, mulberries (there is a silk industry), and roses.
This cultivation of roses for the production of attar of roses is an
almost exclusively Bulgarian industry. Most of the genuine attar of
roses produced in the world comes from Bulgaria. The production
is a Government monopoly, and I believe that if care is taken to
secure flasks of attar with the Government seal the purchaser may
be sure of getting the genuine article. Otherwise, as likely as not,
oil of geraniums is substituted for the attar of roses, or is used as an
adulterant. The rose valleys are grouped around Stara Zagora, and a
visit to the farms in the flowering season—late spring—should be an
incident of a Balkan tour.
The exports of Bulgaria are chiefly cereals, and the imports
manufactured goods of all kinds. But by a system of high Protection
and bonuses efforts are being made to establish manufacturing
industries in the country. The oldest Bulgarian industry is weaving,
which has existed from ancient times as a home industry. The wool
of the country was worked up into cloths, carpets, braids, serges, etc.,
which were in request throughout the Ottoman Empire. The most
important weaving centres are Pirdop, Panaguiourichté, Karlovo,
Sopot, Koprivchtitza, Klissoura, Kalofer, Gabrovo, Trevna, Sliven,
Kotel, and Samokov. Under Turkish rule, these towns supplied cloth
to the Imperial army. Bulgarian cloths were then held in esteem,
and there was a demand for them in Greece and in Asia Minor.
In 1880 some capitalists decided to start modern workshops. The
example was given by the towns of Gabrovo and Sliven, where there
are now large factories, organised on modern principles. There are
as many as twenty-six factories in other towns, among others, at
Samokov and Kazanlik. Bulgaria holds the first place for weaving in
the Balkan Peninsula. Lately, in addition to the making of woollens,
cotton-spinning has been introduced, and there are several mills now
working.
So pronounced has been the growth of industrialism in Bulgaria
that labour legislation has been already found necessary. There are
laws making regulations for the employment of apprentices, for
the maximum number of hours in the working day, and the age of
apprentices. The law of 1905 regulating the work of women and
children lays down conditions for the employment of children under
fifteen, and for women of all ages, occupied in factories, mines,
quarries, workshops, and other industrial undertakings. Children
of either sex who have not attained the age of twelve years must not
be employed in factories, workshops, at pit-mouths, in quarries, or
sewers. However, children under twelve, but in no case under ten,
may be employed in certain undertakings. Children under fifteen and
women under twenty-one cannot be employed in the subterranean
parts of mines or quarries. The working day for children is limited
to eight hours; night-work is forbidden to women, and to children
under fifteen. On Sundays all industrial establishments must close.
In addition to these laws protecting workers there are laws
protecting employers against foreign competition and granting them