In this text the focus is on the motivation of people to seek a job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bulgaria in the last years of the 19th and early 20th century. As a basis for analysis the author uses an archival source unexplored: a part of the archival fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Central State Archives – Sofia (called “Personal files”), which contains a considerable amount of requests and statements, that is, application letters to the Minister. Data from 1899 to 1909 are taken into account and discussed through the lens of the idea of exploiting social capital as a way for social uplifting.