Chapter 15

The picture at the bottom of page 448 I found interesting and caught my attention. It is a picture of Russian men in line paying tax (by tribute or fur) to the Russian ambassador. I noticed that they were all wearing hats ... and I also noticed that the ones near the left (the front of the line) seem to be just paying in money but as you get further along the line you see that it is tribute and then paying in fur. Did the artist do this on purpose? What does this signify?