In all modern countries at the present time, accordingly, the plan has been developed for placing the government's funds in a single strong bank; and as a rule the central banking organization of the country-has been chosen to exercise this function. Elsewhere in this volume it has been shown that the central bank of the nation is in essence a bankers' bank. As things have developed, the relation of the government to the banks as depositor has thus practically developed into a system whereby taxes, duties, and other public dues are paid in bank credit. Under our income-tax law, for example, a taxpayer remits to the collector of internal revenue a check on his own bank. Such checks are deposited with a Federal Reserve bank and eventually result in transferring a credit from the account of the depositor in the individual bank to the account of the government in the Federal Reserve bank. The payment is thus no longer made in money, but in bank credit, and the credits of the government are carried on the books of the central bank. The "hard-money" policy is thus entirely abandoned, while even paper money is but little used in making settlements. Payments take place in book transfers, just as is the case with large settlements involving private enterprises. This modern method of transacting the government's business amounts to giving to the public authorities the right to dip into the community's store of wealth, transferring it to creditors as may be necessary, but disturbing the underlying reserves only in a minimum degree. There would seem to be no reason to suppose that the other plans already described will make headway again in practice. It should be carefully observed, however, that when the government becomes a large depositor in any banking institution it naturally assumes a much closer relationship to such an institution than it otherwise would, the result being that it inevitably assumes on this account, if on no other, a right and duty of oversight or control which it might not otherwise feel called upon to undertake.