The thing, in use, is a single thing, determinate in quality and quantity, and related to a specific need. But its specific usefulness is, at the same time, quantitatively determinate and comparable with other things of the same usefulness, just as the specific need which it serves is at once need in general, and, according to its particularity, likewise comparable with other needs — and, correspondingly, so is the thing comparable with those things useful for other needs. This universality of the thing, whose simple determinacy emerges from the particularity of the thing, such that its specific quality is at the same time abstracted from, is the value of the thing, in which its true substantiality is determined and becomes an object of consciousness. As full owner of the thing, I am owner just as much of its value as of its use.

The feudal tenant has this distinction within his ownership, that he is meant to be owner only of the use, and not of the value, of the thing.