How did the Commercial Revolution lead to the Age of Exploration?
I am not sure I would agree with the cause/effect implications of the stated question
The Age of Exploration brought about the vast commercial development of the 16th and 17th century through its technical, nautical and financial discoveries.
The usage of farfetched exotic goods was expanding in Europe. Spices, hard wood, silk, tea, sugar… were all imported to the large urban communities of the Old Continent. There was an open avenue for huge profits for whatever improvement could be made to the classical caravan and nautical routes through the Mediterranean-Black Sea and the Gobi desert.
The around Africa course had not been open yet and merchants were therefore dependant on the slow and inefficient land caravans.
It was this need to advance on this situation that opened the Age of Exploration with the valiant Portuguese and Italian captains.
Once the new routes were opened by Vasco da Gama, Colombo Magallanes and so many others, the Commercial Revolution could start in the 16th century with banks, insurances, trading posts and the new mercantilist policies.