diff --git a/oxrlib/loaders.py b/oxrlib/loaders.py
index 3e4d22b10d7f3b34c24399c30ba86356632d3c23..e839dddcbb9c18748fc020fdae6f2cd04a373b06 100644
--- a/oxrlib/loaders.py
+++ b/oxrlib/loaders.py
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+import cgi
+import io
+import urllib.request
+import urllib.parse
+
 class LoaderError(Exception):
     pass
 
@@ -25,3 +30,48 @@ class FileCache:
             return path.open()
         except FileNotFoundError as error:
             raise LoaderNoDataError(path) from error
+
+
+class OXRAPIRequest:
+    DEFAULT_API_ROOT = 'https://openexchangerates.org/api/'
+    DEFAULT_RESPONSE_ENCODING = 'utf-8'
+
+    def __init__(self, app_id, api_root=None, *, open_func=urllib.request.urlopen):
+        self.api_root = self.DEFAULT_API_ROOT if api_root is None else api_root
+        self.app_id = app_id
+        self.open_url = open_func
+
+    def _get_response_encoding(self, response, default=None):
+        try:
+            content_type = response.getheader('Content-Type', 'application/json')
+            _, ct_options = cgi.parse_header(content_type)
+            encoding = ct_options['charset']
+        except (KeyError, ValueError):
+            encoding = self.DEFAULT_RESPONSE_ENCODING if default is None else default
+        return encoding
+
+    def _raw_query(self, url_tail, params):
+        url = '{}?{}'.format(
+            urllib.parse.urljoin(self.api_root, url_tail),
+            urllib.parse.urlencode(params),
+        )
+        response = self.open_url(url)
+        status_code = response.status
+        encoding = self._get_response_encoding(response)
+        response_body = io.TextIOWrapper(response, encoding=encoding)
+        if 200 <= status_code < 203:
+            return response_body
+        elif status_code == 404 or status_code == 410:
+            exc_class = LoaderNoDataError
+        elif status_code >= 500:
+            exc_class = LoaderSourceError
+        else:
+            exc_class = LoaderBadRequestError
+        with response_body:
+            raise exc_class(url, response_body.read(64 * 1024))
+
+    def historical(self, date, base):
+        return self._raw_query(
+            'historical/{}.json'.format(date.isoformat()),
+            {'app_id': self.app_id, 'base': base},
+        )
diff --git a/tests/test_OXRAPIRequest.py b/tests/test_OXRAPIRequest.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..147af8a11f327b3e9e038117397ee30feb0bea48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_OXRAPIRequest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+import datetime
+import http.client
+import io
+import json
+import os
+import random
+import string
+import urllib.parse
+
+import pytest
+import oxrlib.loaders
+
+APPID_CHARS = string.ascii_letters + string.digits
+RANDOM_APPID = ''.join(random.choice(APPID_CHARS) for _ in range(32))
+API_ROOT = 'http://[100::]/oxrlibtest/'
+API_ROOT_PATH = urllib.parse.urlsplit(API_ROOT).path
+
+class FakeResponse:
+    debuglevel = 0
+    version = 11
+
+    def __init__(self, status_code, reason=None, body=None, headers=None, encoding='utf-16'):
+        if reason is None:
+            reason = http.client.responses[status_code]
+        if body is None:
+            body = json.dumps(reason)
+        if headers is None:
+            headers = {
+                'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset={}'.format(encoding),
+                'Content-Length': str(len(body)),
+            }
+        self.status = status_code
+        self.reason = reason
+        read_fd, write_fd = os.pipe()
+        with open(write_fd, 'w', encoding=encoding) as body_file:
+            print('\ufeff', body, sep='', file=body_file)
+        self.fp = open(read_fd, 'rb')
+        self.headers = headers
+
+    def __getattr__(self, name):
+        return getattr(self.fp, name)
+
+    def getheader(self, name, default=None):
+        return self.headers.get(name, default)
+
+    def getheaders(self):
+        return list(self.headers.itervalues())
+
+
+class FakeOpener:
+    def __init__(self, response):
+        self.response = response
+        self.call_list = []
+
+    def __call__(self, url, **kwargs):
+        self.call_list.append((url, kwargs))
+        return self.response
+
+    def call_count(self):
+        return len(self.call_list)
+
+    def last_called_url(self):
+        return self.call_list[-1][0]
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def api_client():
+    return oxrlib.loaders.OXRAPIRequest(RANDOM_APPID, API_ROOT)
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def any_date():
+    return datetime.date.today() - datetime.timedelta(days=730 - random.randint(0, 365))
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('base', ['USD', 'JPY'])
+def test_success(api_client, any_date, base):
+    body = "Good Test"
+    opener = FakeOpener(FakeResponse(200, body))
+    api_client.open_url = opener
+    response = api_client.historical(any_date, base)
+    assert opener.call_count() == 1
+    urlparts = urllib.parse.urlsplit(opener.last_called_url())
+    assert urlparts.path == '{}historical/{}.json'.format(API_ROOT_PATH, any_date.isoformat())
+    params = urllib.parse.parse_qs(urlparts.query)
+    assert params['base'] == [base]
+    assert response.read() == (json.dumps(body) + "\n")
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('status_code,expect_exctype', [
+    (400, oxrlib.loaders.LoaderBadRequestError),
+    (403, oxrlib.loaders.LoaderBadRequestError),
+    (404, oxrlib.loaders.LoaderNoDataError),
+    (410, oxrlib.loaders.LoaderNoDataError),
+    (500, oxrlib.loaders.LoaderSourceError),
+])
+def test_failure(api_client, any_date, status_code, expect_exctype):
+    opener = FakeOpener(FakeResponse(status_code))
+    api_client.open_url = opener
+    try:
+        response = api_client.historical(any_date, 'USD')
+    except expect_exctype:
+        pass
+    else:
+        assert False, "got response: " + response.read()