Bulgarian Market Foreign Trade Dilemmas during the 1850s–1870s

The article presents Bulgarian market main foreign trade relations in the period of its foundation, i.e. in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. The Bulgarian lands foreign trade during this period is presented as an attempt to answer the question which foreign markets have the strongest influence on the processes in the Bulgarian economic space. The research paper is based on primary archival sources from the French Diplomatic Archives (Archives diplomatiques du Ministere des Affaires etrangeres), mainly on reports of French consuls in Plovdiv (Philippopolis), Varna, Kustendje (Constan?a) and Tultcha, on the data of archival sources and published research results concerning large Bulgarian companies such as “Evlogiy and Hristo Georgievi”, “Hristo P. Tapchileshtov” and others. The main conclusion of this article is that the foreign trade dilemmas facing the Bulgarian market in the third quarter of the 19th century in the alternative between the East and the West were decisively resolved in favour of the West, in favour of Western and Central Europe. Cereals, silkworm cocoons, rose oil, wool and tobacco are exported from the Bulgarian lands to the European markets while colonial and manufactured goods are imported. Another important conclusion is necessary – since its consolidation in the middle and in the third quarter of the 19th century, the Bulgarian national market is closely connected to the free European market and this is a good reason for the Bulgarians to adjust to the free market behaviour – a behaviour that’s not tied with political interventions or ideological interventions.