Not too different from how they’re waged today. One country tells all their partners “If you keep buying stuff from my enemy, I will not buy any of your stuff, or sell you this super important thing you need!”
The difference is probably that high seas piracy was more common “back in the day”
There’s also the caveat that there was always someone in a war and trade was nowhere near free to start with. Anything that could possibly be made locally was because of that, the pirates and highwaymen, and just the expense of transport in a time of few proper roads and no powered vehicles. Things that couldn’t, like spices in Europe, famously ended up being worth their weight in gold.
All that adds up to few or no wars being just “trade”.
Not too different from how they’re waged today. One country tells all their partners “If you keep buying stuff from my enemy, I will not buy any of your stuff, or sell you this super important thing you need!”
The difference is probably that high seas piracy was more common “back in the day”
There’s also the caveat that there was always someone in a war and trade was nowhere near free to start with. Anything that could possibly be made locally was because of that, the pirates and highwaymen, and just the expense of transport in a time of few proper roads and no powered vehicles. Things that couldn’t, like spices in Europe, famously ended up being worth their weight in gold.
All that adds up to few or no wars being just “trade”.