A note on this topic. I approached it from a modern-day perspective, aka post-WWII. I suggested Nazi Germany's domestic and foreign policies were some of the most recent manifestations of country competition. I don't think this is a perfect example, but I think it illustrates the point effectively. What illustrates the point even better though, and what I should have mentioned earlier, is mercantilism.
Merriam-Webster defines mercantilism as "an economic system developing during the decay of feudalism to unify and increase the power and especially the monetary wealth of a nation by a strict governmental regulation of the entire national economy usually through policies designed to secure an accumulation of bullion, a favorable balance of trade, the development of agriculture and manufactures, and the establishment of foreign trading monopolies." Mercantilists viewed wealth as a zero-sum game. In other words, if an English ship stole 100 pounds worth of gold from a Spanish ship, the English would be considered better off than the Spanish by whatever monetary amount 100 pounds worth of gold was valued at.
Smith, Ricardo and other enlightened thinkers dismantled such thinking in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
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