Francia was the dictator of Paraguay between 1814 and his death in 1840, and though his legacy was reviled in post-Triple Alliance War Paraguay, Cañete would through his life show some pride at being the dictator's grandson, coming so far as to challenging Argentinian ex-president Domingo Sarmiento to a duel when the latter wrote a piece critical of Francia in Asunción in 1887.

In 1885 he became Minister of Finance, taking the position after Juan de la Cruz Gímenez resigned, formally for health reasons, amidst various accusations of corruption.

While minister, he was an important advocate for the process of land sales conducted by the government in the 1880s onwards,[12] which are a controversial topic even nowadays, as they served to concentrate land ownership rapidly and had a somewhat short-lived impact in the country’s finances; in 1887 he also was interim Minister of Foreign Affairs for some months,[13] and helped found the long-standing Colorado Party.

[14][15] Afterwards, in the 1890s, he twice again occupied the Ministry of Finance, on the first time leaving after Cecilio Báez accused him of fraud in the process of closure of the Banco Nacional del Paraguay (of which he had been director).

By this time he had also become an important investor in Paraguayan businesses, having large interests in enterprises such as the yerba mate giant La Industrial Paraguaya.