1. That it shall and may be lawful for any manufacturing company duly incorporated by special act of incorporation of this state, to exchange any portion of its full-paid capital stock, by and with the consent of the holders thereof, for assessable shares, which shall acknowledge the payment in the aggregate of the same amount of money as may be represented by the full-paid shares so surrendered; and the directors of the said company may call from time to time for installments on the said assessable shares until the same shall be fully paid, and the directors of any such company may, with the consent of all the stockholders thereof first had and obtained in writing, issue any portion of its capital stock in preferred shares bearing a fixed rate of dividend not exceeding eight per cent per annum, which shares shall be subjected to redemption and retirement upon such conditions as may be expressed in the certificates of said stock; and the said directors may use the said preferred shares at par, or the proceeds thereof, to provide additional capital or to pay the debts of the said corporation; it shall be lawful for the said directors in their discretion to make an issue of shares of common stock equal in number to the preferred shares so issued, which common stock shall be subject to assessment from time to time by the directors of the said company for the redemption and retirement of the said preferred stock in accordance with the provisions thereof or for the general uses of the said company; provided always, that any stock of any company which may at any time have been retired or surrendered may be reissued at par for money or in payment of debts; and provided further, that at no time shall the total amount of the capital stock outstanding at any one time exceed the amount authorized by law. L.1892, c. 264, s. 1, p. 413 [C.S. p. 1671, s. 130].
