Before the 9-to-5: Working Hours in 1700s England
What did work actually look like before the nine-to-five? Starting from a listener's question, this episode digs into pre-industrial England — the most commercialized economy in Europe around 1700 — and finds a labour market that looks strangely familiar. Agriculture's share of the workforce was falling centuries before factories appeared, masons worked by the task like gig workers, and the Reformation may have quietly added a large number of working days to the year by abolishing the saints' days. Then comes the fight: one camp says people worked 270 to 300 days a year, another says 150 to…
The skinny
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