Answer:
High demand in spices and tea
Explanation:
At that time, Spices and tea leaves that can be only found in Asia were hot commodities among European Nobles. Trading those goods to the nobles give European merchants with a huge profit Margin.
Because of these merchants started to invest in sea exploration in order to find trade routes to asian Continent. They developed a good relationship with Asian merchants and both cultural and inventions exchanged occured between the two societies.