In the Great Tang, only the wealthy could afford pepper. Saying that an ounce of pepper cost an ounce of gold might be an exaggeration, but it definitely wasn't less than half an ounce of gold.
At this time, pepper was completely reliant on imports, and it was actually harder for Great Tang people to make money than for Europeans (the nobles in Europe were easily fooled with lots of money to spare).
Seventy percent of the dietary needs of the European wealthy class required pepper, so the demand was imaginable.
Therefore, those Western Regions merchants were more willing to sell the pepper they bought from Southeast Asia to European countries, with very little making it into the Great Tang market.
The rarer the commodity, the higher the value. As such, it's no wonder that pepper was even more expensive in the Great Tang.
Lin Wanwan in the modern era spent thirty-nine thousand to buy a ton of pepper, which equated to nearly a ton of gold in the Great Tang.
