I guess I don't know enough about the world of high finance to understand why this is a big deal. For many years the British Pound was the hot set-up, yet during the 1930's there were a lot of countries that did not want to accept it in payment.

I never did this, but I talking to some of the old-timers when I first started working and they said that almost all dealing in cargos of crude oil was done in gold. Even US companies were allowed by the US to deal in gold when it came to trade with other countries. At least ours was.

After WW 2 the US Dollar was the only currency anyone wanted because the US was just about the only real first world country left on Earth that could back up it's currency.

Trading goods for goods is also something that has never stopped. We traded a new refinery for a few million bbls of oil that was still in the ground, PepsiCo. traded Pepsi to the Russians for Vodka back in the 70's or 80's. For all I know they are still doing it.

When currencies were allowed to float against each other it no longer made any difference what currency you were trading in as long as you could find another country to take it.