Virtuous and unvirtuous business

I was struck in this reading by the establishment of virginal virtue versus those who pretend to be virgins.  The very concept of virginity and its antithesis, carnal pleasure, is often viewed in the context of a commodity, but one on a purely spiritual level.  Jerome's language seems to delve occasionally into that of a merchant or businessman as he relates how the agapetae (interesting connection back to the Greek rather than the Latin) delve into carnal transaction (habeat carnale commercium) and how he describes Blesilla, on account of her husband's death, only possessing a minor reward or pay (minorem continentiae habere mercedem).  Naturally, this concept of business is equally echoed in Jerome's explicit comparison of these women with prostitutes.  As Jerome received a large amount of backlash for his own enterprises relating to the wealthy and aristocratic Roman women with whom he associated, to the extent that he was driven out of Rome, I wonder if this was the same sort of argument that his detractors used against the Saint himself.