The Millikens Market was founded by Millard T. Millikens, Ernestine Rutherford and Ignatius Wetherbee, all astromancers who specialized in arithmancy that met at Imperial Magischola.
After graduation, the three of them founded what would become the Magimundi’s first investment banking and venture capitalist firm, Millikens Associates. Millard pioneered the concept of breaking a company up into parts that could be owned by different people across the Magimundi, not merely held by one family. These pieces of a company became known as “millikens” and mages and wizards began investing in millikens of a variety of magical businesses that were started in the 1880s to 1910s – a time of tremendous growth in the Magimundi. Körner Industries, Foresight Industries, were founded and funded through millikens, which are now bought, sold, and traded on the Millikens Market, known as simply “The Board.” However, how one purchases millikens in a company is a bit mysterious.
The Headquarters of Millikens & Associates, where the trades are made and “The Board” is located, is heavily warded and fortified. Employees are hand-picked and sworn to secrecy, their memories altered should they leave the employ of the company. Magimundi members do not want their net worth a matter of public record, so the actual worth of any Millikens of any company is closely guarded, not only for privacy, but also to minimize access to the numerical data that could potentially be exploited or manipulated by non-Board arithmantic mages.