360 day calendar

[rancke]

In connection with the question of how the Imperial calendar can have 28 months and still have 12 monthly payments per year, I just stumbled across a calendar used by, among others, financial markets to simplify the Gregorian Calendar: 360-day calendar.

I must confess that I'm still a little hazy on how the scheme works in practice, and apparently there are several different 360-day calendars. The point that I think is interesting though, is that the Imperial world of finance doesn't have to avail themselves of the Imperial calendar's 28-day months; it can (and evidently does) have something else that allows 12 payments per year.

IMTU I use 'Day 001 and every 30 days' as the dates for starship payments. That's not canonical, of course.

EDIT: Oops. I use 'Day 30 and every 30 days'. I can't think why I made that mistake. People are not going to pay bills on Holiday.


Hans

 

[whulorigan]

In connection with the question of how the Imperial calendar can have 28 months and still have 12 monthly payments per year, I just stumbled across a calendar used by, among others, financial markets to simplify the Gregorian Calendar: 360-day calendar.

I must confess that I'm still a little hazy on how the scheme works in practice, and apparently there are several different 360-day calendars. The point that I think is interesting though, is that the Imperial world of finance doesn't have to avail themselves of the Imperial calendar's 28-day months; it can (and evidently does) have something else that allows 12 payments per year.

IMTU I use 'Day 001 and every 30 days' as the dates for starship payments. That's not canonical, of course.

Seems like it would have been simpler to have had 13 months of 28 days each (since in the Imperium a "month" is not tied to the period of any satellite), yielding a year of 364 days. The extra (missing) 365th day would then be Holiday, naturally. Of course 13 is not nice and evenly divisible into "quarters" (or any other subdivision) for financial purposes.

But as far as 360 day calendars go:

1) The Ancient Egyptians used a calendar of twelve 30-day months (360 days), but then added a "hoilday-period" of 5 days at the end of the year. In a Traveller context, those extra 5 days could be individually added in at any time during the year, so some variant of this could work as the basis for a financial cycle. (Perhaps 1 day added on the 1st & 12th months (the day before and after Holiday, perhaps, as an extended financial holiday), and the remaining two at the end of month 4 and month 8).

2) Note in the "See Also" section of the page you linked, the Old Persian Calendar, which used twelve 30-day months, but added a leap-month every 6 years. For financial use in Traveller, however, you would then have to decide what to do with a 13th financial month every 6 years.
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[rancke]

Seems like it would have been simpler to have had 13 months of 28 days each (since in the Imperium a "month" is not tied to the period of any satellite), yielding a year of 364 days. The extra (missing) 365th day would then be Holiday, naturally. Of course 13 is not nice and evenly divisible into "quarters" (or any other subdivision) for financial purposes.

The rules for starship financing says 12 monthly payments per year. The description of the Imperial calendar says 28 day months.


Hans

 

[Highorbit_drifter]

The rules for starship financing says 12 monthly payments per year. The description of the Imperial calendar says 28 day months.


Hans

So you get a month free. That would help with keeping the ship going. If the whole point of the Third Imperium is to promote trade, giving the 'little guy trader' that extra edge doesn't sound out of place.

I had asked about Holiday a while back on these forums, just with this problem in mind.

Is it listed somewhere the 3I uses the Gregorian calendar? It seems clunky if you don't have to actually live on a world with such an inconvenient orbit.

 

[whulorigan]

The rules for starship financing says 12 monthly payments per year. The description of the Imperial calendar says 28 day months

Yes, I am aware. It's just that it seems the game designers missed an easy opportunity here that fits well with the flow of the Imperial Calendar otherwise.

To fit with the canonical Imperial Calendar year, however, I would probably go with something similar to my 360-day year - Option #1 above (which I do not think is all that different, in principle, from the 360-day financial year link you cited).

 

[whulorigan]

Is it listed somewhere the 3I uses the Gregorian calendar? It seems clunky if you don't have to actually live on a world with such an inconvenient orbit.

The Sylean year is (coincidentally ) approximately the same length as Terra's (it varies on the order of hours per year). Vland, however, was 433 days/year, IIRC.

It might have been nice if Cleon had decided to make the year an even 400 days (approximate average of Terra & Vland). Would have made for nice 100-day quarters.

 

[atpollard]

I prefer to use a 13 month (x28 days/month) calendar with no payments due on the month the ship will be down for 2 weeks of annual maintenance.

 

[rancke]

Is it listed somewhere the 3I uses the Gregorian calendar?

It is described in considerable detail that the Imperium uses a calendar with 365 standard days of 24 standard hours each. The most significant difference between the Imperial calendar and the Gregorian (and the Revised Gregorian) is that the Imperial year is exactly 365 days long, bringing it out of synch with the Gregorian calendars by a quarter day per year.

It seems clunky if you don't have to actually live on a world with such an inconvenient orbit.

Presumably Capital uses a local calendar for local affairs and the Imperial calendar for Imperial affairs.

It's a problem every member world faces. Presumably they solve it each in its own way.


Hans

 

[aramis]

The rules for starship financing says 12 monthly payments per year. The description of the Imperial calendar says 28 day months.


Hans

Simplest explanation is that the month in which maintenance is scheduled to be performed, no payment is due. This also means that, if you manage to make the payments during those months, you're 39 months ahead by the end of the contract - turning it into a 37 year mortgage.

Note that it is specified that annual maintenance usually takes 2 weeks. It could be as low as one or has high as 4. The banks would know, and have to accommodate for this - either in more restrictive vetting of viability, or in allowing for a month with limited operation.

 

[whulorigan]

Freelance Traveller Magazine (December 2013)

By interesting coincidence, the December 2013 issue of Freelance Traveller Magazine (which just came out) has an article on Calendars of Charted Space on p.24.

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/magazine/2013-12/

 

[Easterner9504]

Likely the Terran 12 month calendar was adopted during the Rule of Man and the 3rd Imperium saw the need for a new calendar. But since 12 month solar calendar was in vogue so the 13 month lunar calender Cleon chose was ignored by business. Who knows, maybe you pay your bills on the 1st of each month except the 4th, on that month you pay your taxes.

 

[whartung]

Just hard to imagine any company wanting to stop their cash flow for an entire month just because there's 13 months. "I don't care if you're getting maintenance or not!"

Even if they're paying 13 months of mortgage in 12 months, that's just pre-payment -- just can't see them letting a month go by without getting their installment.