Directorate-General for the Treasury

However, the directorate-general was not created until later, and during the reign of Ferdinand VII, when the modern administration began to take shape. In 1824, the then Minister of Finance Luis López Ballesteros approved a general instruction (a kind of royal decree) by which the Crown entrusted the administration of the Royal Treasury to two new bodies: the General Accounting for Distributions and the Directorate-General for the Royal Treasury (DGRT).[1]

The directorate-general was not inaugurated until August 4, 1825, and during the period from its creation until that date, it was still called the General Treasury of the Kingdom.[2]

The DGRT had its own treasury called the Court Treasury and over which the General Accounting Office acted as auditor. The DGRT had the task of collecting the money for the Royal Treasury and distributing it according to what the Secretary of the Dispatch of the Treasury ordered. Likewise, it was in charge of paying debts and authorizing payments, including those of the Army, as well as making budgetary and expenditure forecasts.

The Marquess of Remisa, Director-General for the Treasury from 1826 to 1833.

The general instruction also provided for a secretariat for the management of the directorate-general and an archive that it was shared with the General Accounting Office to keep all the documents of the predecessor bodies and those that would be generated in the future.

Since the mid-1830s, the directorate-general was renamed Directorate-General for the Public Treasury and the Undersecretariat of Finance was created as the highest body of the Ministry after the minister himself, and the Under Secretary became the hierarchical superior.[3] As of 1840s, the denomination of Directorate-General for the Public Treasury and Directorate-General for the Treasury was used indifferently, although the first one prevailing.

Due to the refusal of the Bank of San Fernando first and the Bank of Spain after on granting loans to the Public Treasury, the General Deposit Office was created in 1853.[4] This Office had an autonomous directive chart until by decree of July 8, 1873 it became part of the directorate-general.[5]

Since the law of April 29, 1855, there was a permanent commission of six deputies of the Cortes charged with supervising the cargas de justicia—payment obligations contracted by the State in order to compensate the holders of royal donations and privileges, or of rights alienated from the Crown—paid by the Government through the budget and whose administrative body was the directorate-general for the Treasury.[6] The powers over these cargas de justicia were transferred to the Directorate-General for Public Debt on July 1, 1869[7] and in exchange it received the powers over lottery revenues when the Directorate-General for State Lotteries disappeared.[8]

Between 1873 and 1924 was denominated indifferently of three different forms to this body, varying between Directorate-General for the Treasury, Directorate-General for the Public Treasury and Directorate-General for the Public Treasury and General Ordination of Payments of the State, although maintaining its holder the first of the denominations.

On March 13, 1875,[9] the directorate-general lost the powers it had over the Mint Houses (Casas de la Moneda) that were transferred to the Undersecretariat of Finance and recovered them on February 14, 1882.[10]

The most significant reform since its creation was carried out on December 10, 1895. A Royal Order defined the directorate-general as "the center responsible for covering public obligations and services with the natural income of the budget, and with the funds acquired through banking operations, when those are not sufficient". The body consisted of three departments—one for Order Services, Deposit Office, General Affairs and General Registry; other for General Incomes; and other for Raffles and Lotteries incomes—, a secretariat and a special banking office.[11]

With the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the directorate-general changed its name to the Directorate-General for Treasury and Accounting and was granted the powers to draft the budget laws.[12] After the dictatorship, in 1930 a decree-law was approved restoring the Public Treasury Administration and Accounting Act of 1911 and, with it, the denomination of directorate-general for the Public Treasury.[13]

On September 28, 1935, the Directorate-General for Insurance and Savings was abolished and its powers were transferred to this body, changing its name to the Directorate-General for the Treasury and Insurance.[14] Already in the middle of the Civil War, the Republican government unified the ministries of Economy and Finance under a single one and the directorate-general suffered a change of powers, losing the insurance powers in favor of the Directorate-General for Debt, Insurance and Passive Classes and it was renamed Directorate-General for the Treasury, Banking and Savings.[15]

Once the war was over in 1939, it was renamed the Directorate-General for the Treasury. By decree of May 10, 1957 occurs the second major reform of this body, merging the directorate-general with the directorate-general for Public Debt and Passive Classes and creating the Directorate-General for Treasury, Public Debt and Passive Classes.[16] This directorate-general was made up of the deputy directorates-general for the Treasury; for the Public Debt and for the Passive Classes and the General Deposit Fund.[17]

By decree of November 27, 1967, with the objective of reducing the public expenditure of the Administration, the Directorates-General for Budgets and for Insurance were abolished, integrating their powers and bodies into the Directorate-General for the Treasury, which was renamed Directorate-General of the Treasury and Budgets and was formed by eight general deputy directorates, three related to treasury and the others related to Budgets, Investments, Financing and Programming, public salaries, Insurance and Financial Regime of Local Corporations. In addition, since 1973 there was also a general secretariat, with the rank of deputy directorate, within the directorate for the coordination of all its organs.

In October 1976 the name of the general direction was changed to Directorate-General for the Treasury, but without changes in its powers.[18] In 1982 also assumed the powers on financial policy, maintaining this structure until the end of 2011.

Between late 2011 and mid-2014 the directorate-general was suppressed and its powers were assumed by the new General Secretariat for the Treasury. In 2014, the body was recovered to optimize the management of the Public Treasury and specially to the Autonomous Liquidity Fund.[19]