Why would the intellgient Japanese give me a Honda in exchange for a pile of worthless paper?
The paper isn’t worthless. It represents face value in its denominated currency. Both the Honda car and the pile of paper represent an equivalent labor, differing only by the relative value of the currencies of the two countries.
Like I said, I don’t know what term you want to use to represent a large imbalance in trade. If my population has to work 40 hours a week to buy what your population produces in 10 hours a week, then my population is going to send all of its labor value to you in exchange for 25% of its labor value to me. That leaves 75% of its labor value to consume or trade with others.
They gain relative wealth. We lost relative wealth.
What am I missing? I know I made a simplistic example, but what am I missing here?