Global business has not been around that long compared to other payment methods. Before the internet which was about twenty years ago, people had to mail a check to a place if they wanted to buy something from another part of the company.
However, if someone wanted to buy something from another country, that took more time and energy to convert the money from one type of currency to the other.
So, many people did not buy as many things as they do now. When global business took effect, this made it easier to buy and sell goods from different countries. Paypal and other companies made it easy to securely buy goods and services from other countries with just the click of a mouse.