ABSTRACT
The Mercantile Bank's PARADISE was one of the best-known and most easily remembered of these telegraphic titles. It was inherited from its forerunner, the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, which had begun to use this cable address in about 1875. It was also an apt title. The address was a reminder that the bank's offices included some distant and exotic locations in the East, even where working conditions could not be described as paradise. It was also fitting for a bank which generated the real affection of its customers, shareholders, staff and pensioners around the world.
