Area chart

William Playfair is usually credited with inventing the area charts as well as the line, bar, and pie charts. His book The Commercial and Political Atlas, published in 1786, contained a number of time-series graphs, including Interest of the National Debt from the Revolution and Chart of all the Imports and Exports to and from England from the Year 1700 to 1782 that are often described as the first area charts in history.