{ "cells": [ { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "# Subject 2: Purchasing power of English workers from the 16th to the 19th century" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 1, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ "%matplotlib inline\n", "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n", "import pandas as pd\n", "import numpy as np\n", "import isoweek" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "William Playfair was one of the pioneers of the graphical presentation of data, being credited in particular with the invention of the histogram. One of his famous graphs, taken from his book \"A Letter on Our Agricultural Distresses, Their Causes and Remedies\", shows the evolution of the wheat price and average salaries from 1565 to 1821. First, we will replicate his famous graph and then present alternative versions of the graph to improve the readability." ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Plotting the original graph" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "The data used by Playfair are available on [github](https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/HistData/Wheat.html) in a csv format using the url:" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 2, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ "data_url = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vincentarelbundock/Rdatasets/master/csv/HistData/Wheat.csv'" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "We load the data. The first column and empty row are deleted. The array is made of three columns : the year, the wheat price (in Shilling/quarter) and the wages (in Shilling/week)." ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 3, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { "data": { "text/html": [ "
| \n", " | Year | \n", "Wheat | \n", "Wages | \n", "
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | \n", "1565 | \n", "41.0 | \n", "5.00 | \n", "
| 1 | \n", "1570 | \n", "45.0 | \n", "5.05 | \n", "
| 2 | \n", "1575 | \n", "42.0 | \n", "5.08 | \n", "
| 3 | \n", "1580 | \n", "49.0 | \n", "5.12 | \n", "
| 4 | \n", "1585 | \n", "41.5 | \n", "5.15 | \n", "
| 5 | \n", "1590 | \n", "47.0 | \n", "5.25 | \n", "
| 6 | \n", "1595 | \n", "64.0 | \n", "5.54 | \n", "
| 7 | \n", "1600 | \n", "27.0 | \n", "5.61 | \n", "
| 8 | \n", "1605 | \n", "33.0 | \n", "5.69 | \n", "
| 9 | \n", "1610 | \n", "32.0 | \n", "5.78 | \n", "
| 10 | \n", "1615 | \n", "33.0 | \n", "5.94 | \n", "
| 11 | \n", "1620 | \n", "35.0 | \n", "6.01 | \n", "
| 12 | \n", "1625 | \n", "33.0 | \n", "6.12 | \n", "
| 13 | \n", "1630 | \n", "45.0 | \n", "6.22 | \n", "
| 14 | \n", "1635 | \n", "33.0 | \n", "6.30 | \n", "
| 15 | \n", "1640 | \n", "39.0 | \n", "6.37 | \n", "
| 16 | \n", "1645 | \n", "53.0 | \n", "6.45 | \n", "
| 17 | \n", "1650 | \n", "42.0 | \n", "6.50 | \n", "
| 18 | \n", "1655 | \n", "40.5 | \n", "6.60 | \n", "
| 19 | \n", "1660 | \n", "46.5 | \n", "6.75 | \n", "
| 20 | \n", "1665 | \n", "32.0 | \n", "6.80 | \n", "
| 21 | \n", "1670 | \n", "37.0 | \n", "6.90 | \n", "
| 22 | \n", "1675 | \n", "43.0 | \n", "7.00 | \n", "
| 23 | \n", "1680 | \n", "35.0 | \n", "7.30 | \n", "
| 24 | \n", "1685 | \n", "27.0 | \n", "7.60 | \n", "
| 25 | \n", "1690 | \n", "40.0 | \n", "8.00 | \n", "
| 26 | \n", "1695 | \n", "50.0 | \n", "8.50 | \n", "
| 27 | \n", "1700 | \n", "30.0 | \n", "9.00 | \n", "
| 28 | \n", "1705 | \n", "32.0 | \n", "10.00 | \n", "
| 29 | \n", "1710 | \n", "44.0 | \n", "11.00 | \n", "
| 30 | \n", "1715 | \n", "33.0 | \n", "11.75 | \n", "
| 31 | \n", "1720 | \n", "29.0 | \n", "12.50 | \n", "
| 32 | \n", "1725 | \n", "39.0 | \n", "13.00 | \n", "
| 33 | \n", "1730 | \n", "26.0 | \n", "13.30 | \n", "
| 34 | \n", "1735 | \n", "32.0 | \n", "13.60 | \n", "
| 35 | \n", "1740 | \n", "27.0 | \n", "14.00 | \n", "
| 36 | \n", "1745 | \n", "27.5 | \n", "14.50 | \n", "
| 37 | \n", "1750 | \n", "31.0 | \n", "15.00 | \n", "
| 38 | \n", "1755 | \n", "35.5 | \n", "15.70 | \n", "
| 39 | \n", "1760 | \n", "31.0 | \n", "16.50 | \n", "
| 40 | \n", "1765 | \n", "43.0 | \n", "17.60 | \n", "
| 41 | \n", "1770 | \n", "47.0 | \n", "18.50 | \n", "
| 42 | \n", "1775 | \n", "44.0 | \n", "19.50 | \n", "
| 43 | \n", "1780 | \n", "46.0 | \n", "21.00 | \n", "
| 44 | \n", "1785 | \n", "42.0 | \n", "23.00 | \n", "
| 45 | \n", "1790 | \n", "47.5 | \n", "25.50 | \n", "
| 46 | \n", "1795 | \n", "76.0 | \n", "27.50 | \n", "
| 47 | \n", "1800 | \n", "79.0 | \n", "28.50 | \n", "
| 48 | \n", "1805 | \n", "81.0 | \n", "29.50 | \n", "
| 49 | \n", "1810 | \n", "99.0 | \n", "30.00 | \n", "