Because unlike the Ironborn, Corlys is willing to engage in trade and has thing to trade with.
The ironborn aren’t totally immune to the lure of trade, as Steven’s writings on the New Way show; in the books, Tris Botley understands it, and while Asha doesn’t have a lot of time for Tris she doesn’t ridicule his notion of getting rich with an eastern trading voyage as foolish or unmanly.
The ironborn live in the back of beyond, at the literal edge of the world, and their culture has an enormous revanchist streak of “anything you didn’t take by smashing in someones face with an axe isn’t really yours, you fucking coward.” That’s not a recipe for wealth. They could overcome that, but choose not to.
I am relatively sure in my own mind that there have been plenty of New Way ironborn captains and traders who have amassed very large fortunes trading to the east. And then they frittered them away, or their heirs were Old Way idiots who declined to maintain any sort of trading or industrial infrastructure, or any one of a number of pitfalls the Old Way has of destroying the New Way popped up.
Ok, allow me to be more elaborate:
The Ironborn are not consistent enough traders to get rich in the long term – absolutely there are plenty of historical examples of New Way kings and captains who got quite rich enouraging trade, even if it was of the “fell off the back of the ship” variety. The problem is, as @opinions-about-tiaras points out, those fortunes are easily frittered away and those commercial contacts easily lost, especially if the son of the man who traded with you suddenly starts robbing you at axe-point.
So Corlys had a much better time getting to the heart of Essosi trade than the Ironborn – he doesn’t have the pirate’s reputation to deal with, he speaks Valyrian and because he has the old blood will be treated with respect if not awe by most of the Free Cities, he represents an island with more productive resources and a large, rich hinterland, etc.
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