There was a documentary made a few years ago called "The Commanding Heights" which I found quite compelling. In part, it looked at the global economy of about 1910. Great industrial nations buying and selling goods. Italian marble? Brazilian mahogany? Chinese silk? International trade was king. Through telephones, telegraphs, and the beginnings of radio, global communication was established. The whole thing really felt like a description of the world we live in today.
But they screwed it up. The competition and complex inter-locking agreements guaranteed a world war, and the bloody events of the 20th century all flowed downstream from the events of 1914.
One might argue that with the fall of the Soviet Union, the world finally began to come out of that shadow. And we saw a glorious global economy take off all over again. The internet came along to make communication even better, and goods streamed across all the oceans.
But we (again) built a house of cards, and I think it is all about to collpase all over again.
Then as is now, world business had done miracles. I’m still not sure how the first WWI started. It just seemed so auto-pilot, and in my opinion destroyed Europe right up to the fall of the wall.
There is no telling for the world, what the increase in wealth, science, material and other progress would exist now if not for two massive wars and a warping cold war, all for near five generations in Europe.
Maybe printing money, which spreads sacrifices to all, isn’t the worst of options.