Reading Hobbes's Leviathan. Property.

The right and power of Hobbes's Sovereign are absolute, irresponsible, and even totalitarian.

In a state of nature - that is, in a state of war - every man has an equal right to all things, he says, including even each other's bodies or persons.

As a necessity of peace, it belongs to the Sovereign to lay down rules creating property, determining mine and thine for each and all, providing methods for and conditions of exchange, and so on.

It is interesting to see how far Rousseau agrees with Hobbes about the transition from nature to political society.

For both, the surrender is total and the power unlimited of the Sovereign or General Will.

For both, property rights, justice, whose in particular is what in particular, and rules of exchange are creations of the sovereign, as they are for Hume conventions.