Augustus William Harvey was born in Bermuda on May 31, 1839.
Harvey's ancestors were among the first settlers in Bermuda in
the early 17th century and by the early 19th century his family
was active in trade between Bermuda and Newfoundland. Harvey
received his early education in Canada and then studied at the
University of Pennsylvania. He came to Newfoundland in 1853,
first working briefly for the Marine Insurance Company before
joining the fishery supply firm of Dunscombe, Harvey and Company,
that was partly owned by his uncle, Eugenius Harvey. There were
several changes in partnerships and titles of the company which
after 1866 was known as Harvey and Company. In 1861 Augustus
Harvey joined the firm and became its managing partner with the
departure of his uncle to Bermuda.
Unlike most Newfoundland mercantile houses whose trading was
based with England and Scotand, Harvey and Company was North
American in origins and its interests included a substantial
import trade with the United States and Bermuda and it had a
branch in New York. The firm was one of the first to become
actively involved in importing foodstuffs from the United States.
Its flour and provision trade by the early l900s would be the
largest in the Island. The company was also active in the fish
export business and by the 1880s would be the eighth largest
exporter in Newfoundland, shipping cod to the Caribbean and South
America. In the mid-1880s Harvey and Company became a minority
partner in the New York, Newfoundland and Halifax Steamship
Company (known as the Red Cross Line), which provided a weekly
service from St. John's to Halifax and New York.
Harvey was one of the pioneers in establishing local industries
in Newfoundland and his company was a prime beneficiary of the
government's efforts from the 1870s to promote local industries
through tariff protection. Among the many businesses he
established at St. John's in the early 1870s were furniture,
tobacco, margarine, biscuit, and bread factories.
Having supported the anti-confederate party in the 1869 general
election, on February 14, 1870, Harvey had been appointed to the
Legislative Council by Premier Charles Fox Bennett. Harvey
remained an anti-confederate for the remainder of his life. In
the 1870s and early 1880s Harvey was a strong supporter of the
efforts of Conservative premiers Frederick Carter and William
Whiteway to secure foreign investors for a railway across
Newfoundland. In this regard, he differed from his fellow Water
Street merchants, who generally opposed its construction.
Although Harvey favoured railway building, he otherwise shared
the outlook of his fellow merchants in his concern for the
fisheries. In 1886 he helped the government of Premier Robert
Thorburn to draft legislation regulating the sale of bait fish to
French fishermen on the Grand Banks. Approved by the British
government the following year and put in force in 1888, the Bait
Act symbolized the fears of Water Street merchants, who blamed a
subsidized French fishery for the increased competition from
France in Newfoundland's traditionally strong markets in southern
Europe. Harvey also advocated innovation in the fisheries and
pressed for the colony to follow the lead of other countries and
establish a bureau to conduct scientific investigation. In 1889
Harvey became chairman of the fisheries commission established by
the Thorburn Government in that year. He strongly supported the
work of the commission's superintendent, Norwegian fisheries
official Adolph Nielsen. When, in the 1890s the government
withdrew financial support for a cod hatchery at Dildo, Harvey
funded it for a year.
In the 1889 general election Harvey prudently gave financial
support to both sides. Whiteway's supporters were successful and
Harvey entered the cabinet with responsibility for the fisheries
commission while continuing as its chairman. Harvey wielded
considerable influence within the government. Although he
supported Whiteway's policy of railway development to open up the
interior of the island, on the bait and French Shore questions
his views resembled those of Water Street merchants who had
supported Thorburn. Harvey intimated to his close associates that
he joined the Whiteway government to protect the existence of the
newly established fisheries commission and enforcement of the
Bait Act.
In 1890 he supported Whiteway's decision to complete the railway
across the island as a means of strengthening Newfoundland's
economy and hence postpone any new efforts by local politicians
for confederation with Canada. When Colonial Secretary Robert
Bond negotiated a proposed reciprocity treaty in 1890, Harvey
endorsed it fully as it would strengthen Newfoundland's trading
ties to the United States. Canadian opposition to this deal,
which excluded Canada which itself was unable to strike a similar
free trade deal with the United States, led to the Colonial
office refusing to sanction the so called Bond-Blaine Convention.
Harvey remained an important player in the Newfoundland economy.
In 1896 his company revived the whaling industry through the
establishment of the Cabot Steam Whaling Company, which used the
technical expertise of Adolph Nielsen and other Norwegians.
Harvey and Company pioneered pulp and paper making and in 1897
built Newfoundland's first pulpmill at Black River in Placentia
Bay. It operated for only a few years before closing because of
insufficient water-power.
Well-known for his philanthropy, Harvey was instrumental in
establishing the Fishermen's and Seamen's Home, opened in
December 1886. He served on a committee set up in 1893 to help
English doctor Wilfred Grenfell provide medical care to residents
of coastal Labrador. Further, Harvey was prominent in lay and
educational matters of the Church of England. He died at St.
John's on February 7, 1903. He had had, as the St. John's Trade
Review observed in 1903, "buoyant enthusiasm and belief in the
country's undeveloped capabilities" through economic
diversification.