Friedrich von Hayek once defined the problem of central banks quite precisely. The thing is, Hayek wrote, that they perform two contradictory tasks — “supplying the public with money” and “serving the needs of the government.” We have seen that central banks originally emerged to “serve the needs of the government.” “Supplying the public with money” was handled by the mining industry. The government could not control the amount of money or the speed of its emission, although, of course, it would have liked nothing more than such control. However, the emergence of legal tender and the impossibility of central bank bankruptcy led to a state monopoly on money. The “needs of the government” were satisfied through the monopolization of “supplying the public with money.” Banks held their reserves at the central bank, and the banking system as a whole issued the national currency. Quite naturally, the central bank soon gained the ability to regulate the amount of fiduciary money in circulation by managing the reserves of commercial banks. In this way, central banks combined within themselves two contradictory functions: “supplying the public with money” and “serving the needs of the government.” From this moment, the so-called fiat or “decree” money appeared, which the state now compels us to use.