Final answer:
Depreciation is a method of allocating the cost of an asset over its useful life, commonly done using straight-line depreciation. Economically, tracking physical goods transported between countries was used to measure the balance of trade, which informs the economic relationships between nations.
Step-by-step explanation:
A method of matching an asset's original cost against the revenues produced over its useful life is known as depreciation.
This accounting principle helps companies to spread out the expense of an asset over the time it is used to generate revenue. A common method used for this is the straight-line depreciation method, which allocates an equal amount of the asset's cost to each year of its useful life.
A few decades ago, tracking the solid or physical items that were transported between countries through planes, trains, and trucks was common practice.
This was done to measure the balance of trade, which economists used to help understand the economic interactions between nations. The balance of trade is the difference between a country's exports and imports of physical goods.