Pretty much all the major European powers handed out letters of marque to privateers/mercenaries though and the practice predated buccaneers and the Spanish Mai

Pretty much all the major European powers handed out letters of marque to privateers/mercenaries though and the practice predated buccaneers and the Spanish Main. However, the British probably exploited their usage more than any other nation against the Spanish from the 16th to the 18th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque