Some recent works on the relationship between coffee interests and the State during the Brazilian ‘First Republic’ (1899–1930) have shown that the relationship between the national State and ‘coffee bourgeoisie’ was not quite as simple as earlier studies had made it seem. However, these analyses seem to assume that, at the regional level, the federalism of the First Republic placed regional political structures under class control. The goal of this article is to show that the ‘instrumentalist’ thesis is not even valid for the State apparatus when considered at the regional level. The article focuses on São Paulo state, seat of the most powerful interests linked to the coffee economy.