They tend to be evened out in aggregate with different imports/exports. Also we're not talking an apples to apples comparison here. Back then economies were ex

They tend to be evened out in aggregate with different imports/exports. Also we're not talking an apples to apples comparison here. Back then economies were extremely dependent on silver for international trade and only so much of it came from so many places every year. Trade depended on recirculation of silver. The closest you could get to that today would be one country hoarding the shit out of US dollars and somehow the US being unable to print more. If you look back to the 90s/00s when the US was heavily importing from China and China had no local buying power, the trade imbalance was combatted by the US Treasury creating debt instruments for exclusive buying by China. This diplomatic/economic tool benefited both sides at the time.