The Fairplay freights: Compiling a dataset of interwar coal freight rates

The interwar period presents a challenge to maritime economic historians due to the lack of quality data. To improve our understanding of freight rate development during this period, I have compiled a dataset of coal freight rates from the United Kingdom, based on the lists of fixtures in Fairplay magazine. In this article, I discuss the source material and data collection process, compare the Fairplay data to other sources on interwar freights and present a preliminary survey of the data. Due to the large number of observations and the high degree of detail in the data, the new Fairplay dataset presents promising opportunities for further research into interwar shipping.