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The Department of Trade and Industry was set up in August 1955 within the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to coordinate measures taken by the Government towards the industrial development of the Maltese Islands.

At the same time the new Department took over the functions and duties previously carried out by the Trade Development Office (under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce), covering the representation in Malta of the United Kingdom Board of Trade, and the Registration of Trade Marks, Patents and Designs. This function is now the responsibility of a separate Division within the Department, in the charge of the Comptroller of Industrial Property.

In December, 1955, the Director of Trade and Industry took over, in addition, the former activities of the Food and Commerce Control Officer.

In February of 1964, the Department of Trade became separate from the Department of Industry but, remained under the Ministry of Industrial Development and Tourism.

In April 1966 a new Government took office and the Department of Trade was placed under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Trade, Industry and Agriculture.

The Commerce Department was set up towards the end of 2000, on the recommendation of the Operations Review carried out in the Ministry for Economic Services.

In 1969 Malta ratified the Universal Copyright Convention and in 1977 joined the World Intellectual Property Organisation. In 1994 Malta became a founder member of the World Trade Organisation and was thus bound by the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights as from 2000. That very same year the century old laws governing copyright, patents and trademarks were repealed and replaced by new legislation. In 2002 new legislation concerning design was also introduced.

The office of the Chief Secretary was the head administrative office of the Civil Government. Through it were channeled all departmental, consular, ecclesiastical, and individual correspondence, and all naval and military correspondence concerning civil matters. Local Government policy emanated only from this office, through letters and orders to the various heads of department, ordinances and publications in the Government Gazette. A centralized filing system with separate registry for both departmental and private matters (petitions) kept record of every query.

The office began to function on the 5th October 1813 with the arrival of the first Governor, when its preceding office of Public Secretary was abolished.

This Chief Secretary to Government was the highest civil authority, second only to the Governor, and worked in close consultation with and under directives of the Governor’s Office. The Chief Secretaries had charge of all Government records including the archives of the Order of St. John. They also supervised the preparation of the Annual Blue Book, censored the Government Press, and controlled the working of all public civil Departments. In the Commercial Department of the Chief Secretary’s office all ships were registered under the various Shipping Acts. This branch also issued:

• Bills of health, personal passports, and certificates of competency to master mariners, mates and padroni.
• Acts of naturalization and letters patent of denization to aliens.
• Warrants to act as advocate, notary, physician, broker, land surveyor, etc.
• Licenses to deal in marine stores, to act as auctioneer, to keep schools, to exercise the art of goldsmith, etc.

The Chief Secretary’s office also kept records of licenses granted by the Governor, for marriages performed in non-Catholic churches. After the 1921 Constitution all work dealing with purely local matters was taken over by the Maltese Government. The Maltese Imperial government dealt only with ‘matter reserved to the Crown’.