Thanks Duncan. It’s a good point. If anything, the pre-industrial revolution agrarian economies probably hard to work hardest over the summer to plant, develop and harvest crops (I’m not sure if there’s an equivalent cycle for livestock or whether that would be all year round).

Maybe that’s why the school term started after that period though, or towards the end of it – the kids (and academics?) were needed on the farms during the summer, so the academic year must work around that!