From time:

       time
Returns the number of non-leap seconds since whatever time the 
system considers to be the epoch, suitable for feeding to 
"gmtime" and "localtime". On most systems the epoch is 00:00:00 
UTC, January 1, 1970; a prominent exception being Mac OS 
Classic which uses 00:00:00, January 1, 1904 in the current 
local time zone for its epoch.
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My time also outputs something in the same numerical region as yours (1196656266). Conclusion: You're using one of the various UNIX/Linux/etc. flavours, or maybe even just Windows (I don't know what they use as epoch, but meh); therefore, your output of time is number of seconds since epoch (which is always UTC, as per doc).