That I have something in my own external power constitutes possession, just as the particular aspect, that I make something mine out of natural need, drive, and arbitrary will, is the particular interest of possession. But the aspect that, as free will, I become objective to myself in possession and thereby first become an actual will, constitutes what is true and rightful in it – the determination of property.

Having property appears, when need is made the primary consideration, as a means; but the true position is that, from the standpoint of freedom, property, as the first existence of freedom, is an essential end in itself.