Which carry trade are you talking about? By the 1700's, European vessels had as much as 10% of the East Asian / South Asian carry trade. That required silver to buy into, since at the time few in the high income countries would have been interested in buying cheap European knockoffs of the products of the higher income nations.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.