argumate:

The High Price of Dollar Dominance

Those who claim that the dollar is in decline often argue that for the last 600 years, reserve currencies have risen and fallen in tandem with their home economies. As the United States’ share of the global economy diminishes, they claim, the dollar’s role will also diminish. But the truth is that there were no dominant global reserve currencies before the U.S. dollar. It is the only currency ever to have played such a pivotal role in international commerce.

Even in a precious metals-backed era China and (proto-)Germany used silver rather than gold

(This is why the Nevada Silver Rush and the Opium Wars were contemporary – the China trade was draining European silver, so a new source was a major prize AND the British cultivated [Company-sourced] opium as a counterbalancing export to China AND they turned to force to turn terms of trade in their favor )