I strongly recommend David Graeber’s Debt: the First 5000 Years (which is based extensively on Michael Hudson’s research) to understand that all human economic activities dating back to the ancient Sumerian civilization are predicated on developing a financial system that works, because money (debt) allows for planning for the long term, without which human societies could not have advanced far into agrarian societies that require planning over seasons/years.

Real production is fundamentally tied to its financing. And how you decide to create money (debt) dictates the economic system itself. If your country has decided that you can only create new money from revenues of exporting goods to other countries, then your economic system will be strongly tied to export. There is no other way around it, because you’d never be able to develop the economy without keep selling more and more stuff to foreigners.

To put it another way, imagine if you constrain yourself to only be able to use one glass of water for every hour of work done, it would fundamentally shape how you live your life. You will alter your lifestyle around how much water you have to preserve every day, how much surplus water you have to keep in reserve (sometimes that means austerity - drink less every meal!), and how much work you have to do each day just to be able to quench your thirst or to wash yourself. What if you get laid off? Do I have to borrow from my friend who has stashed a bottle of water? How am I going to pay them back? What favors do I have to return?

Imagine having to live like that, and imagine (as I assume, like almost everyone, this is how you live) not having to worry about such constraints!