Why did Jean-Jacques Rousseau think early civil society benefited rich people more than poor people?

In his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that early civil society was established to serve two primary purposes: maintaining peace and protecting property.12

Rousseau contended that this arrangement was inherently biased in favor of the wealthy. By formalizing the concept of property, civil society transformed de facto possession into "rightful" ownership, effectively legitimizing the holdings of the rich while ensuring the poor remained dispossessed. Because the poor had little to protect, they gained significantly less from this "fraudulent" social contract than the rich, who used the state’s legal and governmental apparatus to secure their status and wealth. Consequently, Rousseau viewed this form of civil society as a mechanism that protected the status quo rather than promoting true justice or equality.12