R/Playfair1824.R

In HistData: Data Sets from the History of Statistics and Data Visualization

#' @name Playfair1824
#' @aliases Playfair1824
#' @docType data
#' @title
#' Playfair's Linear Chronology
#'
#' @description
#' Data from William Playfair's (1824) last graph, titled "Linear Chronology, Exhibiting the Revenues, Expenditure, Debt, Price of Stocks and Bread, from 1770 to 1824".  The chart tracks multiple economic variables, including national debt, exports, imports, revenue, expenditure, the price of stocks, and the price of bread over a 154 year time span.  
#'
#' @usage data("Playfair1824")
#' @format
#'  A data frame with 55 observations on the following 9 variables.
#'  \describe{
#'    \item{`Year`}{numeric, a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Stocks`}{Price of Stocks (Pounds per 3% consol bond), a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Wheat`}{Price of Wheat (Shillings per quarter), a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Bread`}{Price of Bread (Farthings per quarter-loaf), a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Debt`}{National debt (Tens of millions of pounds), a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Exports`}{Exports (Millions of pounds), a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Imports`}{Imports (Millions of pounds), a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Expenditure`}{Expenditure (Millions of pounds), a numeric vector}
#'    \item{`Revenue`}{Revenue (Millions of pounds), a numeric vector}
#'  }
#'
#' @details 
#' Playfair's 1824 chart is a pivotal work in the history of data visualization because it uses a 
#' multiple line graphs showing time series of economic indicators over time, with a fine appreciation of the complexity and directly labeled curves.
#' The dataset, extracted from the image by Ivan Lokhov using WebPlotDigitizer,
#' presents a challenge in trying re-create it, or do better using modern graphics methods.
#' @source 
#' Ivan Lokhov, Remaking a 200-year-old chart <https://www.datawrapper.de/blog/playfair-chronology-multiple-lines>
#' 
#' @references
#' Playfair, W. (1824). *Chronology of Public Events and Remarkable Occurrences within the Last Fifty Years; or from 1774 to 1824*, published by W. Lewis, Finch Lane,  London.
#' 
#' The original chart can be seen on Wikimedia at: https://bit.ly/4ihX92a
#' 
#' Spence, I., Fenn, C. R., & Klein, S. (2017). Who is buried in Playfairs grave? *Significance*, 14(5), 20–23. \doi{10.1111/j.1740-9713.2017.01071.x}
#'
#' 
#' @concept time-series
#' @concept economics
#' @examples
#' data(Playfair1824)
#' str(Playfair1824)
#' 
#' # Plot multiple time series with matplot()
#  #use initial letters of variables for pch
#' matplot(Playfair1824$Year, Playfair1824[, -1],
#'         pch = c("S", "W", "B", "D", "E", "I", "X", "R"),
#'         type = "b",
#'         xlab = "Year",
#'         ylab = "value",
#'         ylim = c(0, 140),
#'         main = "Linear Chronology, Exhibiting the Revenues, Expenditure, ... from 1770 to 1824")
#' 
#' # main events
#' events <- data.frame(
#'   start = c(1776, 1793, 1804),
#'   end = c(1782.2, 1802, 1815.2),
#'   event = c("American War", "War: French Republic", "War: Napoleon")
#' )
#' 
# # draw lines for main events
#' with(events, {
#'   arrows(x0 = start, x1 = end, 
#'          y0 = 130, y1 = 130, 
#'          lwd = 3,
#'          code = 3,
#'          angle = 90, length = 0.05)
#'   text((start+end)/2, 132, event, pos = 3)
#' })
#' 
#'
#' @keywords datasets
NULL