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The first sample batches of tea reached England around [[1664]]-[[1669]]. By the 1740s, more than two million pounds of tea were shipped from China to Britain every year, and by the 1830s, this figure had swelled to over 30 million.<ref name=matsuda/><ref>Marsall Sahlins, "Cosmologies of Capitalism," Nicholas Dirks and Sherry Ortner et al. (eds.), ''Culture/power/history: a reader in contemporary social theory'', Princeton University Press (1993), 418.</ref> China was, for a time, the world's only exporter of tea, and the volume of trade in the good was such that, at its height, tariffs on the importation of tea represented as much as 10% of total British government revenues.<ref>Lloyd Eastman, ''Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949'', Oxford University Press (1988), 128.</ref> Tea + [[silk]] constituted at least 50% of Chinese exports throughout the 19th century, peaking as high as 92% in 1842 and 93.5% in 1868, though this figure fell to 64.5% in 1890, just before the turn of the century. At least 40% of tea production in China was for export, and 50-70% of silk production, all the way to the 1920s.<ref>Joseph Esherick, "Harvard on China: The Apologetics of Imperialism." ''Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars'' 4:4 (1972), 10.</ref>

The first sample batches of tea reached England around [[1664]]-[[1669]]. By the 1740s, more than two million pounds of tea were shipped from China to Britain every year, and by the 1830s, this figure had swelled to over 30 million.<ref name=matsuda/><ref>Marsall Sahlins, "Cosmologies of Capitalism," Nicholas Dirks and Sherry Ortner et al. (eds.), ''Culture/power/history: a reader in contemporary social theory'', Princeton University Press (1993), 418.</ref> China was, for a time, the world's only exporter of tea, and the volume of trade in the good was such that, at its height, tariffs on the importation of tea represented as much as 10% of total British government revenues.<ref>Lloyd Eastman, ''Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949'', Oxford University Press (1988), 128.</ref> Tea + [[silk]] constituted at least 50% of Chinese exports throughout the 19th century, peaking as high as 92% in 1842 and 93.5% in 1868, though this figure fell to 64.5% in 1890, just before the turn of the century. At least 40% of tea production in China was for export, and 50-70% of silk production, all the way to the 1920s.<ref>Joseph Esherick, "Harvard on China: The Apologetics of Imperialism." ''Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars'' 4:4 (1972), 10.</ref>

[[Milk tea]], though quite common and popular in Japan today, does not seem to have been seen in Japan until the [[Meiji period]]. Long before that, however, the British and others around the world were already adding milk and/or sugar to their tea. [[Manchus]], [[Mongols]], [[Tibet]]ans, and others also made their tea with milk or butter, and [[Ryukyuan tributary embassies|Ryukyuans visiting China]] had the opportunity to taste this unusual beverage.<ref>Watanabe Miki, "Miruku ti wo nonda Ryûkyû shisetsu," ''Yomigaeru Ryūkyū ōkoku no kagayaki'' 甦る琉球王国の輝き, Okinawa Prefectural Museum (2008), 23.</ref>

[[Milk tea]], though quite common and popular in Japan today, does not seem to have been seen in Japan until the [[Meiji period]]. Long before that, however, the British and others around the world were already adding milk and/or sugar to their tea. [[Manchus]], [[Mongols]], [[Tibet]]ans, and others also made their tea with milk or butter, and [[Ryukyuan tribute missions to China|Ryukyuans visiting China]] had the opportunity to taste this unusual beverage.<ref>Watanabe Miki, "Miruku ti wo nonda Ryûkyû shisetsu," ''Yomigaeru Ryūkyū ōkoku no kagayaki'' 甦る琉球王国の輝き, Okinawa Prefectural Museum (2008), 23.</ref>

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