what did people trade/sell during the age of exploration?

Answer 1

In 1492, the year Columbus sailed west and Granada, the last Moorish state in Spain, fell to Ferdinand and Isabella, peppercorns were exchanged in Amsterdam for twice their weight in gold. Pepper was transported by caravan, and reached Europe by land until the introduction of the lateen sail made it possible to sail in any direction. Since a boat could carry much more than a camel, and smells a bunch better, the traders took to the water.

Of course, pepper was huge. Other spices and dyes were also profitable. There was also refined sugar, which had just been developed. According to Ferdinand Braudel, the French historian whose "Structures of Everyday Life" is the definitive analysis of the history of trading, refined sugar was being traded on every corner of the Earth within twenty five years of its discovery. Given the difficulties in transport, that is like evrybody in the world becoming addicted to the same designer drug over the weekend.

So, in a nutshell: spices, especially pepper; dyes and fabrics; bulbs, such as tulips; refined sugar.

Braudel suggests that the Eskimo traded for sugar a hundred years before the white traders reached the Arctic.

Answer 2

salt - Roman soldiers were paid by it
rum - cheapest way to move sugar
spices
fine silks from China - Marco Polo

Answer 3

Preservable foods, spices, textiles, handicrafts, cultural curiosities.