3. Government and Public Finance in the Old Republic, 1889–1930

The failures of the provincial government of São Paulo convinced the São Paulo elite of the need to create a more powerful and autonomous state government once the Republic was proclaimed. How this new regime was established after 1889 is the main theme of the chapter. It shows how the state government was rapidly equipped with professional administrators who in turn would develop a modern state structure in everything from education and public health to its own military force. Quickly this state government emerged as the most powerful and modern in Republican Brazil.