In the 1580’s and 1590’s while the Spanish were importing gold and silver from their New World colonies the other European nations were left  to pirating the Spanish fleet to get some of the booty. Francis Drake raided the Caribbean and then the coast of Peru and Mexico before finishing his famous circumnavigation of the world. The patron of Drake who was Sir Walter Raleigh called him more than a pirate due to the size of his thefts. Queen Elizabeth received a cut of Drakes’s profits and was rewarded with a knighthood.

(Book – American Colonies: The Settling of North America – Alan Taylor)