However, because of the weakness and the deficiencies of the Spanish industry and trade sectors, during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera was needed an autarchic policy.

As a result, the sectors affected demanded a protectionist tariff policy in defense of national production against foreign one and, in turn, make it easy the exports.

It was a tariff policy that served two competing needs: one was to protect the different sectors of the Spanish economy against the international, heavily taxing imports of products produced by foreign counterparts; another responded to the need to defend export agriculture, a sector with a large foreign market and which was damaged by the rise in tariffs, victim of the consequent increases in the countries affected by the Spanish measures.

This was solved with the signing of international treaties of Commerce and Navigation agreeing a particular and significant reduction of the tariff with each one of the foreign nations with which commercial exchanges took place.

Finally, this body served to control all pressure groups in the country and thus channel their antagonistic interests: Boards and chambers of Commerce, Industry and Navigation, associations of producers, employers' organizations and trade unions of all kinds.

The end of the Military Directorate in 1925, the restoration of the ministerial regime and the economic circumstances led to the creation of the Ministry of National Economy (despite its name, it is today the Ministry of Industry) by Royal Decree-Law of 3 November 1928, in response to public opinion that this affairs required to be placed under one direction only, both in terms of production, trade and consumption; and that to date they were dispersed among the rest of the government departments.

His legal regime constituted him as an autonomous body of work, consultant, adviser and technician in all the matters that affected the national economy.

During the premiership of Arias Navarro, a specific Deputy Prime Minister was created for economic affairs, a position that was assumed by the head of the Treasury portfolio.

The new position implied the disappearance of the Ministry of Development Planning, leaving its Undersecretariat ascribed to the Delegate Commission of the Government for Economic Affairs.

Once the political transition to democracy began, the second government presided over by Suarez was aware that the constitutional process would be seriously hampered if there was no economic growth.

Its main task was to establish the guidelines of the general economic policy, the short and medium term programming and the study of the proposal of advisable measures to ensure the smooth running of the economy of the country.