Government action in the field of Industry within the historical limits of Spanish constitutionalism, can be traced to the early 19th century.

In 9 November 1832 the Ministry of Development was created and among other responsibilities, it had the domestic and foreign trade; industry, arts, crafts and manufactures.

[8] 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 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.

[10] This structure was maintained until 1951 when because of the growth of the commercial activity, in which —according to the dictator— made inexcusable a greater attention of the States, especially in its two most important aspects, of supplies and foreign currency, reached such extension that completely absorbed the activity of one Ministry, given the dimensions and complexity of the problems in which the Administration was obliged to intervene; and the industrial development of Spain and the forced promotion of mining and production of energy and basic materials, contained in itself more than enough field to absorb all the activities of a single ministerial department, forced the government to split the Ministry of Industry and Trade in two.

This last Ministry, considered the direct successor, in words of its minister Anna Birulés in her speech before Congress in 21 June 2000 «the Department is responsible for the challenge but also the opportunity to make the decisive process of promoting the culture of innovation in our country a reality in the time horizon of this legislature».

[14] The new Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recovered the Ministry in 2018[15] with competencies on industrial affairs, trade and tourism sector.