This article analyzes the modernization of the sugar cane industry with the advent of central sugar factories in Piracicaba. Data from enterprises, legal offices and Piracicaba’s periodicals allow us to recognize the strategies that were being used by sugar cane enterprises groups to improve their business and overcome the challenges at that time. The mercantile capital ascendancy over the sugar cane industry configured a diverse enterprise organization formed by familiar companies; limited societies associated with the refineries, and anonymous societies created by foreign capital. The ascension of this industry made possible the joint of an important polarized sugar cane complex in the region of Piracicaba. A significant result was the constitution of a mechanical nucleus that produced equipment for sugar and alcohol devices.