By 1757, that grip was secure, and the Company had begun controlling its most lucrative trade routes with its own private army, effectively making it the de facto ruling power for much of Bengal—much too close for comfort for the Nepalese kings to the north, and vice versa. As the Gorkha kingdom, under the rule of Prithvi Narayan Shah, gobbled up more and more rival territory to form a unified Nepal, a showdown between the two regional powers became all but inevitable.
