I think you have the wrong picture of the scale of the investment required to fund Columbus. It was common for businessmen to fund voyages to known places. Columbus had a more difficult time because of the unknown. He actually had a pretty good idea of the distance involved (because his estimate of the radius of the earth was too low) and the Irish and Vikings had been getting almost there for centuries. He went to royalty because they could afford bigger risks. The reason that royalty werent involved much in scientific and commercial advancement was that their sport of choice was war.