This would not have occurred with bilateral trading. Today, the whole system is threatened with collapse because the U.S. flooded the international markets with a huge excess of dollars primarily to finance the Vietnam War, oil imports, and Reagan's Star Wars program. The excess of U.S. dollars means they are no longer so valuable to hold onto. So today we find the central banks of western Europe and Japan buying U.S. dollars for no other reason than to keep their price up. Despite this abuse at the international level, multilateral trading has an essential role to play both within nations and between nations.
Experience suggests the following.
Potential instabilities can be corrected due to the cultural and political coherence of the community. On the other hand, barter or bilateral trading should be used between communities because this system prevents one community gaining at the expense of another. Multilateral trading requires much cohesiveness between the numerous trading entities if it is to be of mutual benefit to all concerned. As a corollary, the further two communities are apart, whether in distance, culture, or politics, the more bilateral trading is the preferred system. This principle can be used to formulate trade agreements for South-South cooperation and more generally in the reform of international trade.