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USA / China: Augustine Heard (1785 - 1868) was an American entrepreneur, businessman and opium trader, the founder of the Augustine Heard & Co. firm in China.

Augustine Heard was born into a wealthy merchant family of Ipswich, Massachusetts. His father, John Heard (1744-1834), had made his fortune by trading with the West Indies, and his half-brother Daniel (1778-1801) also worked in foreign trade with the West Indies and China.

Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Augustine did not graduate and instead, in 1803, began working for a prominent Boston, Massachusetts merchant, Ebenezer Francis. Two years later, Heard embarked as supercargo to Calcutta on one of Francis' ships. Climbing the ranks of trading companies, Heard was, by 1812, captain of his first ship, the brig Caravan. He pursued his naval career for 18 years, becoming a renowned navigator.

In 1830, at the age of 45, Heard settled in Canton, China, where we became partner in the American trading firm Samuel Russell & Co. In 1834, he returned to Boston for health reasons, and managed his business from there. He also developed close ties with his nephews, the sons of his brother George Washington Heard, and developed a business relationship with them. set up his own company, Augustine Heard & Co. in 1840 with Joseph Coolidge and John Murray Forbes, friends and partners who had remained in Canton. The firm became very successful, and rapidly grew to become the third largest American firm in China.