“張獻忠沉銀”銀錠初考

The silver ingots sank during ZHANG Xianzhong Jiangkou Battle and later retrieved in Jiangkou Town, Pengshan District, Sichuan Province are partly looted and partly minted. The looted ingots are mainly from government and imperial military governors of Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Northern Guangdong, and Sichuan Provinces, etc. As to the types of these ingots, it includes Jin Hua Yin (or Zhe Se Yin) levied as feudal land tax, additional soldier’s pay and provisions, salary of imperial military governors, pay for factotums and tax deduction or exemption for scholars etc. For the minted silver ingots, they are mainly from Chengdu Prefecture and its closely adjoining prefectures and counties, not covering a very wide range. All the inscribed silver ingots belong to the tax levied by government and the types of them are primarily silvers converted from grains of various kinds. In addition, the ingots have reign title Dashun and titles of reigning dynasty Daxi, Xi Dynasty inscribed on. Therefore, those silver ingots retrieved prove the historical fact that ZHANG Zhongxian had invaded, plundered and levied taxes in Sichuan region.