Prior to the era of globalization, various international currencies emerged successively across the world, spanning multiple regions or even continents. Notable examples include cowrie shells in the South Asian trade circle, gold and silver coinage in the medieval Mediterranean trade network, and Song Dynasty copper coins in the maritime trade ring surrounding China. However, these currencies largely lacked cross-regional payment and settlement functions. Their characteristics as circulating commodities and their regional, localized circulation were more prominent, and behind them, there was no clear hierarchical order structure. In the early modern period, precious metal silver became the first international currency since the globalization era. It not only linked global economic and trade exchanges but also promoted the development of global payment and settlement systems. More importantly, a gradually emerging hierarchical order structure underpinned it. In this process, Ming China and Spain were among the first to be impacted by silver inflows, which influenced the trajectories of their national destinies to a certain extent.