Bacon, per pound $2.50 Fresh beef, per pound .70 Flour, per barrel 40.00 Meal, per bushel 4.00 Rice, per pound .30 Peas, per bushel 6.50 Sugar, per pound 3.00 Coffee, per pound 6.00 Candles, per pound 3.75 Soap, per pound 1.00 Vinegar, per gallon 2.50 Molasses, per gallon 10.00 Salt, per pound .30 The commissioners' prices were always lower than the prevailing market price. A little property or labor would pay a large debt. Merchants did not want to be paid in money, and were sorry to see a debtor come in with great rolls of almost worthless currency. Barter was increasingly resorted to. There were so many different series and issues of money and so many regulations concerning it that no one could know them all, and this operated to discredit the currency. Besides, it was known that much of it was counterfeited at the North and quantities sent South. Prices advanced rapidly in 1865; state money was worth more than Confederate money, though it was much depreciated. Board was worth $600 a month; meals, $10 to $25 each; a boiled egg, $2; a cup of imitation coffee, $5. After the news of Lee's surrender, few would accept the paper money, though for two or three months longer, in remote districts, state money remained in circulation. When Wilson's army was marching into Montgomery, a young man asked an old negro woman who stood gazing at the soldiers if she could give him a piece of paper to light his pipe. She fumbled in her pocket and handed him a one-dollar state bill. "Why, auntie, that is money!" remarked the young man. "Haw, haw!" the old crone chuckled, "light it, massa; don't you see de state done gone up?"[476] SEC. 3. BLOCKADE-RUNNING AND TRADE THROUGH THE LINES Blockade-running