The clothes did get dramatically more affordable after adjusting for quality (after a few bumps).

“After a few bumps”, mate, people were transported to penal colonies and fucking hanged for asking for quality standards and fair wages.

Parliament made frame-breaking a capital offence to protect manufacturer profits. Saying it all worked out eventually doesn’t justify the process, any more than cheap cotton justified the conditions under which it was produced. And frankly, look at modern fast fashion: cheap clothing that falls apart in weeks, produced under appalling conditions overseas. We’re still living with the consequences of the principle that cheapness trumps everything else.