Playfair Balance of Trade Data

Load the data & ggplot2

NB: you may have to install the GDAdata package

if (!require("GDAdata")) install.packages("GDAdata")

## Loading required package: GDAdata

data(EastIndiesTrade,package="GDAdata")
library(ggplot2)

Plot two lines, for Exports & Imports

c1 <- ggplot(EastIndiesTrade, aes(x=Year, y=Exports)) + 
           ylim(0,2000) + 
           geom_line(colour="black", size=2) + 
           geom_line(aes(x=Year, y=Imports), colour="red", size=2)  
print(c1)

Fill the area between curves and change the Y label

c1 <- c1 +
         geom_ribbon(aes(ymin=Exports, ymax=Imports), fill="pink",alpha=0.5) + 
         ylab("Exports and Imports (millions of pounds)") 
print(c1)

Add text annotations, change the theme

c1 <- c1 +
         annotate("text", x = 1710, y = 0, label = "Exports", size=4) +
         annotate("text", x = 1770, y = 1620, label = "Imports", color="red", size=4) +
         annotate("text", x = 1732, y = 1950, label = "Balance of Trade to the East Indies", color="black", size=5) +             
         theme_bw()
print(c1)

Plot trade deficit directly

c2 <- ggplot(EastIndiesTrade, aes(x=Year,
           y=Exports-Imports)) + geom_line(colour="red", size=2) +
           ylab("Balance = Exports - Imports") +
           geom_ribbon(aes(ymin=Exports-Imports, ymax=0), fill="pink",alpha=0.5) + 
           annotate("text", x = 1710, y = -30, label = "Our Deficit", color="black", size=5) +             
           theme_bw()

Combine the two plots into one

library(gridExtra)
grid.arrange(c1, c2, nrow=1)