The correct answer is A) They established colonies and trading posts.
Many countries provided for additional raw materials and foodstuffs in that they established colonies and trading posts.
We are referring to the Middle Ages, where merchants had to travel long roads to take their products to trade in other lands and get some goods from other lands to bring back to its territories to sell them. Merchants from Western Europe established trading posts in different parts of its colonies in America, Africa, and Asia. They did so to facilitate trade with people.