They didn’t sell them later, they sold them immediately. Roughly: - borrow $1mln - buy $1mln of coffee, regular price $10/kg - sell immediately at $8/kg (lower

They didn’t sell them later, they sold them immediately. Roughly: - borrow $1mln - buy $1mln of coffee, regular price $10/kg - sell immediately at $8/kg (lower price helps move the goods quickly) - pay back $1mln loan By the time you paid the loan back, $1mln no longer has the same value. And so the $1mln you paid back is really only worth way $500k. Add to this lack of stability due to war and you may not even pay it back … perhaps you refused to pay, company went out of business, you borrowed from someone who is no longer around (alive, fled the country, etc), or any other number of related reasons. In that case it ends up being pure profit for you. Not so easy to enforce or later track down.