The first go at co-operation, the Chiang Mai Initiative of 2000, was to expand and formalise a network of bilateral swap agreements between central banks, under which they promised to provide each other with liquidity.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

Western Union's value proposition to a local operator: Rather than sign 200 bilateral agreements to offer remittances in 200 different markets, "connect into our global network, and we will allow that local service to become a global service, " says Matt Dill, general manager of Western Union Mobile.

CNN: Mobile money transfers may infuse developing world

For nearly a century, between 1560 and 1640, this bilateral trade would earn Portugal fabulous wealth and make Macau a linchpin in her globe-straddling network of trade.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Visions of China: Macau