It applies and manages the regional and local financing systems and the provision of information on the economic-financial activity of the different Public Administrations.

The history of the Ministry of the Treasury dates back to 1705 when the first Bourbon King, Philip V, tried to fix the financial problems that the Habsburg dynasty had provoked.

Along with this, there was an accountant body of royal servants that existed from the very beginning of the Kingdom of Castile and the General Superintendency of Finance created in 1687.

After the War of Succession, both Crowns finally merged into the Kingdom of Spain and the finance institutions were structured according to the Castilian organization.

This is the reason for the current existence of customs buildings in Valencia —today High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community—, Barcelona, Málaga (today Museum of Malaga) and in Madrid —current headquarters of the Ministry—.

From within this Directorate, promoted by the Marquess of the Ensenada, Secretary of State for the Treasury, took place the creation of a general cadastre for Castile aimed at reducing the many indirect taxes and few direct contributions to a single tax, which had previously been created in the territories of the old Crown of Aragon during the reign of Philip V. Although the project failed, a whole program to be followed by the subsequent owners of the portfolio was established.

During the reign of Charles IV an economic crisis began to take place in Spain, aggravated by the European political instability arising from the French Revolution.

[7] The unstoppable constitutionalist process that took place during the reign of Isabella II imperatively needed a sound public finances as a basic instrument to create wealth and provide political stability to the rising bourgeoisie.

With the rise to power of the moderate party took place the tax reform of 1845, due to the decided personal push of the Secretary of State and the Dispatch of the Treasury, Alejandro Mon.

This responded to the need to centralize and group in the same place both the Secretariat and the Directorates-General for Taxes and the Treasury, which, as noted above, enjoyed a high degree of autonomy from the Ministry.

He consecrated the term «Ministry» to replace the classic one of «Secretary of State and of the Dispatch» and he organized the Department under a modern bureaucratic pattern.

The development of the country and the need to remove it definitively from the financial crises that took place during the 19th century led to new economic and tributary reforms carried out by the ministers Laureano Figuerola (1869), Navarro Reverter (1895) and Raimundo Fernández Villaverde (1902-1903).

This, together with the culmination of the codifying process in Spain, influenced new organic reforms of the Public Treasury and the beginning of the consolidation of a new bureaucratic structure.

In 1911, the Treasury Administration and Accounting Act was approved, the backbone of the entire system of budgetary control and public expenditure.

During this period, the abolition of the Ministry of Treasury between 1923 and 1925 deserves special mention, due to the structure implemented by the Military Directorate presided over by Primo de Rivera.

In 1957 a new tax reform was carried out and opened the way to raise the national income and remove the country definitively from the economic situation that followed the Civil War.

In 1959 an Undersecretariat for the Treasury and Public Expenses was created in charge of the control of the financial resources of the State and of the preparation of the Budgets.

The economic austerity plan of 1967 led to new reforms, simplifying the structure of the Ministry when the Undersecretary for Treasury and Public Expenditure was abolished.