Mundie Moms

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Cassie Clare on Shadowhunter Economics


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Cassie answered a number of questions on twitter tonight including an interesting one on Shadowhunter economics:

Q. Hi, Cassie!! I want to say that I love your books. I am hoping to read the Bane Chronicles soon. I do have a question, though. How do the shadowhunters pay for everything? Like how do they pay for clothing and food when they don’t have an actual income. Mundanes can’t exactly pay them for doing a job that they don’t know is happening. I was wondering that. Thanks!!!! — mirandaohara 

Cassie: Shadowhunters do have an income! Because indeed, some mundanes know about them. And pay them for the work they do. Jace first mentions it in City of Bones:

“They’d be hidden, usually around the altar. Kept for our use in case of emergencies.”
“And this is what, some kind of deal you have with the Catholic Church?”
“Not specifically…. Shadowhunters cleave to no single religion, and in turn all religions assist us in our battle.”


Jace discusses his salary, or the salary he feels entitled to anyway, in City of Ashes

Luke looked as if he weren’t sure about that. “Where will you go? How will you live?”
Jace’s eyes glittered. “I’m seventeen. Practically an adult. Any adult Shadowhunter is entitled to—”
“Any adult. But you’re not one. You can’t draw a salary from the Clave because you’re too young.”

And Will and Jem are even more explicit that mundane institutions pay the Nephilim in Clockwork Prince: 


They were in a large stone-bound room with vaulted ceilings. The floor appeared to be brick, and there was an altar at one end of the room. “We’re in the Pyx Chamber,” he said. “Used to be a treasury. Boxes of gold and silver all along the walls.”
“A Shadowhunter treasury?” Tessa was thoroughly puzzled.
“No, the British royal treasury—thus the thick walls and doors,” said Jem. “But we Shadowhunters have always had access.” He smiled at her expression. “Monarchies down through the ages have tithed to the Nephilim, in secret, to keep their kingdoms safe from demons.”
“Not in America,” said Tessa with spirit. “We haven’t got a monarchy—”
“You’ve got a branch of government that deals with Nephilim, never fear,” said Will, crossing the floor to the altar. “It used to be the Department of War, but now there’s a branch of the Department of Justice—” (13)

There’s a lot more in the Codex, and it’s mentioned in passing in other books as well: the Nephilim collect money from in-the-know-mundanes. The Clave keeps the money and pays individual Shadowhunters, though some do get rich selling confiscated items and spoils. (Spoils: covered in Clockwork Prince and also the Codex.) Hope that helps!

Shadowhunters don’t have their own currency. They have credits that can be drawn against, or use almost any world currency. The Nephilim acquire mundane currency in a few different ways. They have access to it via co-existence with humans all over the world. In a tight spot they could sell valuables at a pawn shop or flea market in whatever region they need currency for, like Jocelyn does in City of Bones:


"She showed me the amulet she had taken from the pile of bones; in the flea market at Clignancourt she sold it, and with that money purchased an airplane ticket." (396)


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