One country's privateer was another country's pirate. Drake was given letters of marque by the english monarch to raid the spanish around south america.
The British empire has the distinction of being the first founded on systematic piracy.
Oh I don't think we were the first :) But we perfected it.
OK, didn't know that. Or maybe most pirates tried to be privateers as often as possible, but if no empire endorsing was at hand, they reverted to just being pirates?