For Europeans the new world cash crops that changed their behaviors were

The process enabling the exchange of people, goods and illnesses across the Atlantic in the New World is called the Columbian Exchange. From the New World, goods such as potatoes, tobacco, chocolate, sugar have been imported. Europeans expanded the interest of trade to the colonial sphere, giving colonies the power to control trade, because the Europeans themselves did not believe in free trade, it had to be controlled, and so Europeans would have an impact on the extraction of precious metals, the income from agriculture, and therefore reinforced the colonies. Thus, with the colonies, goods, which had an ritual value among the natives, began to have market value, it became profitable.

This made them want to learn about money more so this caused them to become selfish