Very similar to how markets worked before central banks emerged. So someone, say a King, would over print cash for whatever random shit his self important 3 inch chimp brain came up with, like War. But at the market place there was nothing to signal random ppl now had more cash in their pocket. How much cash they had in their pocket got decoupled from any work they actually did. So strange things would start happening in the market - prices would jump, factories and farms couldnt produces at the same rate cash was printed, banks would lend too much, people would blame each other or outsiders because no one had info about how much cash was being printed and a mechanism to adjust its supply. Bankruns, asset bubbles, market crashes were the norm. Who looked rich had more to do with how close they were to the money printer.