Why did Adam Smith say that civil government protected the rich against the poor?

In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith explains that civil government serves to protect private property, an institution that emerged as societies evolved from simple hunting stages to more complex forms of organization involving livestock and agriculture.12

Smith recognized that the establishment of law and order was necessary to secure property, but he did not justify this solely through natural law. Instead, he viewed the state’s role in securing property as a mechanism for maintaining social hierarchy. He famously wrote: "Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all."12

While Smith acknowledged the social usefulness of these institutions, he identified them as instruments for the protection of privilege, distinguishing his philosophical history from later theories by emphasizing that this evolution was driven by human nature and the desire for self-betterment rather than purely by class struggle.12